From: abrahamsd@parliament.uk Sent: 15 September 2021 10:25 To: Harry Catherall Subject: OMBC Resolution - Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (Case Ref: DA43091) Dear Harry Catherall Thank you for your recent letter, received yesterday, regarding the Council’s resolution on the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (presented to Parliament as the Climate and Ecology Bill). I very much agree with the Council that we need urgent action on this issue. The flash floods, deadly landslides, and wildfires we have seen over recent years make clear that climate breakdown is not a distant threat but something that is happening here and now. Yet while Parliament declared an environment and climate emergency in May 2019, our Government are simply not responding as the situation requires. The Government maintains that it intends to green the UK economy and that it is taking steps to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But as the Committee on Climate Change’s most recent progress report makes clear, the gulf between the government’s rhetoric on climate action and the reality is vast. Not only are Ministers set to miss the 2050 target that Parliament legislated for, they are not even on track to meet the less ambitious one that preceded it. Confronted by this unfolding emergency, I am clear that 2050 is too late for the UK to end its contribution to climate breakdown and runaway global heating. According to the UN, we have less than ten years left to avoid the worst impacts of catastrophic climate change. Our government must act with far greater urgency and ambition. I support the aims set out in the Climate and Ecology Bill which, as you may know, is a Presentation Bill (one that does not involve a debate or a vote in parliament, but is a way of drawing attention to an issue that requires a change in the law). It was ‘presented’ to Parliament on 21st June as the Climate and Ecology Bill. It is scheduled for Second Reading on 29th October but as the 15th Bill listed for debate, will not be reached and therefore is unlikely to progress unless the Government grants it parliamentary time. I will support the Bill should it be granted parliamentary time and continue press more widely for bold action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency at every opportunity. Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me on this important issue. With best wishes Debbie Debbie Abrahams FFPH Member of Parliament Oldham East and Saddleworth Parliamentary Office: House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Oldham Office: 9 Church Lane Oldham OL1 3AN Tel: 0161 624 4248 (Oldham) 0207 219 1041 (London) Email: abrahamsd@parliament.uk Website: www.debbieabrahams.org.uk Twitter: Debbie_abrahams