Creating a buzz - Bromsgrove's XR lobby Parliament dressed as bees - The Bromsgrove Standard

Creating a buzz - Bromsgrove's XR lobby Parliament dressed as bees

Bromsgrove Editorial 5th Sep, 2020   0

EXTINCTION Rebellion campaigners from Bromsgrove have been in Parliament Square this week lobbying on Green Party MP Caroline Lucas’ private members bill.

Time was given to the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill on Wednesday but the next debate on it will not take place until March.

Ros Cooke, from Bromsgrove XR, said: “This is too late because we fear we are rapidly approaching climate tipping points in which we no longer have time to stop nature’s forces warming our planet.”

Campaigners claim the latest update from the Government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) revealed that Britain’s net zero by 2050 target gave only a ‘greater than 50 per cent’ chance of averting an environmental catastrophe.




The most recent report in June recommends preparing for a two to four degree increase in global temperatures.

But activists say a four degree increase would cause massive food and water shortages and even a two-degree rise would have absolutely devastating effects worldwide.


The bill is an emergency strategy calling for the total emissions to be considered instead of speculative carbon-capture technology to show the true environmental picture and the need to act before 2050.

It calls for the UK to make and enact a ‘serious plan’ to deal with the country’s share of emissions to avert a climate catastrophe and to take the entire carbon footprint (both here and overseas) into account.

It calls for the protection and conservation of nature in the UK and overseas to recognise the damage caused through consumption of goods and urges those in power not to depend on technology to save the day.

Finally it calls for ordinary people to have a real say on the way forward through a citizen’s assembly.

The Bromsgrove campaigners dressed in yellow and black to also highlight farmers’ excessive use of insecticides and the impact on the UK’s bee population.

We contacted MP Sajid Javid to ask if he would be supporting the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill.

He said: “Under a Conservative Government, the UK was the first G7 country to legislate to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and the fastest in the G20 to cut emissions.

“The Government has announced over £2billion of funding for policies designed to achieve those targets since last September and the Committee on Climate Change, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, continues to ensure all arms of Government are focused on tackling this challenge.

“The UK will continue to use its position as a global leader at the postponed UN Climate Change Summit and ask international partners to match the UK’s ambition going forward.”

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