Residents who have become increasingly concerned about the climate emergency have taken their protests to the doorsteps of Croydon’s four MPs.
The time is now: some of the Croydon climate group protesting outside the constituency office of Environment Secretary Steve Reed
Campaigners from the Croydon Green Network rounded off their lobbying by meeting Croydon East MP Natasha Irons, ahead of the Climate and Nature Bill having its second reading in Parliament tomorrow.
The CAN Bill is a landmark piece of environmental legislation, with cross-party support in the Commons and House of Lords, as it seeks to address the full extent of the climate-nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science.
Dr Amy McDonnell, from Zero Hour, the campaign team supporting the Bill, said, “The Climate and Nature Bill is our last, best chance to ensure the UK rrises to the challenge of the crisis we’re facing.
“Previous governments have already pledged alongside 196 other nations to achieve the 2030 targets that the Bill would make law.
“At present these targets aren’t legally binding and our existing legislation isn’t robust enough to ensure they’re met. The CAN Bill, written by scientists, will enable Britain to do everything it has promised and ensure a liveable future for all.”
Catherine Drake Wilkes, who lives in Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s Streatham and Croydon North constituency, said, “We have great expectations of Steve Reed MP, as Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to put his positive words about tackling the climate and ecological challenges into action.
“We call on him to lend support to the CAN Bill on January 24.
“With great power comes great responsibility. We trust he will not duck this. We cannot afford the years of inaction under the Conservatives to be continued under Labour.”
Bel Guild, a member of Croydon Climate Action and a Croydon West resident said, “My MP, Sarah Jones, engaged enthusiastically with ‘The Time Is Now’ climate group. As her new constituents, we hope she supports the CAN Bill and continues to engage with residents’ concerns about the impacts of a warming planet and degrading environment now and for future generations. The time really is now!”
MP’s support: Natasha Irons (third from left), the Croydon East MP, told camopaigners that she backs the CAN Bill
Tim Coombe, of Croydon Community Energy, who lives in Croydon South where Tory Chris Philp is the MP, said, “The last Conservative government completely failed to seriously address the twin crises we face.
“We call on Chris Philp, as Shadow Home Secretary, to take advantage of his position of power to engage with the science set out clearly in the CAN Bill, and to use his influence to ensure the Conservative Party acknowledges the perilous position for our planet and mankind, and shifts to support the CAN Bill.”
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
Why is this dangerous propaganda allowed? This country is on its knees. We have to feed and clothe our own. Whilst the major industrial countries spew out waste, its pointless for the uk to go to zero emissions. It makes no difference and we cannot afford it.
Bollocks. Failing to care for our climate and environment will hasten and worsen our long-term economic decline. And not just here, all over the world.
In the short-term we will see our green belt destroyed for homes bought by overseas purchasers who will never set foot in this country, new runways being built at Gatwick and Heathrow that increase noise and air pollution and make our weather much worse, and see no action being taken to stop raw sewage being poured into our rivers and onto our beaches. All that to make global corporations and the elite that run them even richer.
If you want to live in a country where people don’t care and opinions you disagree with are silenced, move to Trumpton, USA
Without a stable climate we won’t be able to feed our own. The lesser emitting countries, and per capita we’re somewhere in the middle, still make up a high percentage of the global total. So it does make a difference, and would show some leadership.
People like him don’t realise the UK imports nearly half its food.
He believes we should “feed our own” without appreciating the fact that we are being fed with food from countries that have already experienced climate change’s impact on agricultural production, e.g. the 2022 drought and 2024 floods affecting the tomato crop in Italy.
Climate change deniers think “food security” means guards and tags in supermarkets to stop people nicking frozen chickens.
Trump’s war on the environment, aided and abetted here by Labour’s duplicity, means things can only get worse. Much worse
Suggest that when Storm Éowyn makes landfall in these parts over the next 36 hours, you go and stand on the top of Farthing Down for a couple of hours and afterwards you can offer an explanation about what is, or is not, propaganda.
Respectfully I disagree.
Even if you don’t believe that one of the largest economies in the world can’t make any difference or the UK has no international influence surely you would want to protect the nature we have in our own country?
Is turning the country into a polluted wasteland worth it?
Suggest we consider why the country is “on its knees”. I don’t think it will be because we want to protect nature!
this refrain comes up so often…
answer 1: “If not me, then who?”
answer 2: because it aligns with my moral compass
answer 3: because every little bit helps
answer 4: because incremental change can seed transformational change
did you take the covid vaccine? if so did you do it solely for yourself but also to help your community/ the UK/ the world combat it?
do you vote? if so do you do that only because you think that single vote will make all the difference?
we have a system that has economic growth as both an intrinsic need and the key objective. this is driving up material and energy usage which in turn spawns GHG, pollution, land use change which results in climate change and biodiversity loss. in addition, the economic spoils are increasingly reaped by owners/ shareholders exacerbating inequality, concentrating power and influence, keeping the system intact.
you might say it has always been thus, but a look at the planetary boundaries work by the Stockholm Resilience Institute, a read of the IPCC reports, a note of last years temperatures as the highest ever recorded, a review of the years environmental and social disasters makes it obvious that big choices and changes need to be made now, and we all need to support them
for the sake of ourselves, our children, grandchildren and future generations