Starmer torpedoes legislation that would force him to deliver on his own promises

Keir Starmer has ordered Labour Party MPs to drop their commitment to the Climate and Nature Bill. The landmark legislation would make the UK’s targets to tackle the climate crisis emergency legally binding.

Starmer: ushering in climate crisis catastrophe

The Labour leadership had insisted that clauses in the bill that make agreements at international climate summits like those at the UN and in Paris binding must be removed.

The bill would place legal responsibility on the government to either mobilise the private sector or introduce a public Green New Deal, as the only ways to ensure the UK meets its climate targets. That’s through mandating a government strategy within 18 months of the bill passing.

One climate target announced in November is for the UK to reduce its emissions by 81% as of 2035.

With the threat of losing the whip, Labour sponsors of the bill agreed that a vote wouldn’t go ahead in exchange for more input from the backbenchers into environment legislation.

The ‘net zero’ framing – a con

Issues other than Starmer blocking this bill is that the government has only pledged a measly £8bn for Great British Energy as a vehicle for private sector investment in renewable energy.

At the same time, Starmer has issued £22bn on carbon capture projects that don’t work and merely prop up the fossil fuel industry. In fact, the entire framing of ‘net zero’ functions to greenwash fossil fuels – it’s as if we don’t really need to transition to renewables (which are cheaper and without air pollution anyway).

It places failed carbon capture projects front and centre.

“You cannot have growth on a dead planet”

In parliament, co-sponsor of the bill Clive Lewis challenged chancellor Rachel Reeves’ comments at Davos that growth comes before the climate:

I don’t want to see growth that comes at the cost of my daughter and her generation’s future… I’m afraid to say that you cannot have growth on a dead planet. Politicians need to understand that… You cannot pick growth out of the air and say biodiversity will come in second place, climate will come after. They are all interlinked.

And Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:

Frankly it’s nothing short of a national embarrassment for the government to struggle so hard to avoid legally committing to the promises they’ve already made on the international stage.

In the Commons, Labour MP Nadia Whittome added:

There is no more important choice than our very future. We have to choose to serve the interests of people here in the UK and right across the globe. And stand up to the wealthy and powerful determined to enrich themselves at the expense of people and our planet.

Unfortunately, the Starmer leadership has shown once again that it’s not committed to solving the climate emergency through torpedoing the bill.

Featured image via the Canary