FAQs around Zero Hour's Climate and Nature Bill

• The Conservatives’ anti green measures—banning onshore wind, removing financial support for domestic solar, scrapping home insulation support schemes and the Zero Carbon standard for new-build homes—added £15 billion to household energy bills over a ten year period.
• An Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit report estimated that by not investing in net zero technologies over the last decade, the extra costs for households and government was £56 billion over the two years—2022 and 2023.
• By calling for ambitious cuts in emissions and the end to fossil fuels, the CAN Bill acts as an important catalyst in accelerating the development of renewable energy, retrofitting homes and buildings, and subsequently bringing down energy bills—measures that estimate average savings of £300 per year for households by 2030.
• As Ed Miliband MP said at COP27: “It's now cheaper to save the world than to destroy it”.

• It’s disgusting that the UKs precious waterways are being wrecked by pollution, so that we are unable to enjoy and spend time in nature locally. Who wants to swim in a river full of sewage?
• The CAN Bill would expedite the restoration of our natural world and prioritise nature in government decision-making—so that ecosystems and habitats will finally be protected and revived.
• Local people will be able to enjoy spending time by clean rivers and waterways where they can walk and swim without fear—increasing well-being.
• It will mean that constituents no longer suffer illness and disease caused by proximity to pollution, and can rely on clean water to drink.

• There is a direct link between our health, the NHS and climate change.
• Because of the impacts of climate change and pollution, NHS workers are increasingly treating patients with severe dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, pressure sores, smoke inhalation, burns, and sudden cardiac arrests because of intense heat.
• Medics are dealing with life-threatening asthma attacks in children caused by air pollution spikes near their homes and schools.
• This is alongside dealing with infections picked up from paddling in what used to be safe rivers and seas, but which have turned into sewage dumping grounds.
• Doctors discharge patients in the knowledge that we will likely see them again because of inaction in tackling the dangers that made them ill in the first place.
• We must do more to deal with the root causes—and the CAN Bill does so by tackling the climate and nature crisis, head on.
• The impacts of climate change are also affecting the day-to-day running of hospitals and healthcare centres—already in danger of collapse. For example:
  • Extreme heat can impact the effectiveness of medication.
  • Hospital computer systems have been wiped out by “ludicrous” heat waves in major institutions, such as Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital.
  • Flooding regularly disrupts ambulances, damages hospitals infrastructure and limits patients ability to make appointments.
• According to an NHS report, reaching our country’s ambitions under the Paris Agreement could see over:
  • 5,700 lives saved every year from improved air quality.
  • 38,000 lives saved every year from a more physically active population.
  • 100,000 lives saved every year from healthier diets.

Note: In 2023, Zero Hour, alongside 30+ organisations - representing hundreds of thousands of health professionals - delivered an open letter to the former Health Secretary Steve Barclay MP, outlining the risks that not delivering a science-led response to the climate and ecological crisis poses to our NHS and medical professionals. One of our core partners is DAUK, the Doctors’ Association UK, who are keen to work with you.

• The lack of access to affordable, healthy food is deteriorating our community's health—and our local food security is at risk due to extreme weather, which causes crop failure, heat stress in animals and disruption in the operation of supply chains.
• Dealing with nature loss—like in the CAN Bill—necessitates fundamental changes to the way we farm and consume food for the better, which will benefit local communities.
• It will help expedite the transformation of our food system to a more self-sufficient model, necessitating a network of local growers and producers supplying local people, and nature-friendly farming methods—meaning more locally-grown food, at cheaper prices, with fewer food miles.
• As research from the University of Sheffield shows, the pandemic taught us that a local food supply is viable, more resilient, and supports multiple co-benefits.
• Local food organisations create better access to healthier, more nutritious and more environmentally friendly food—delivering long-term benefits to our health—and therefore reducing demand on our NHS (as all of these issues are deeply interconnected).
• The CAN Bill would support the removal of barriers to entry for local food enterprises to grow, who often have better standards in production, trading and labour.

• By tackling, head on, the root causes of climate change and nature loss, we can rebuild resilience into our communities and landscapes.
• Flooding has become a common occurrence, impacting millions across the UK, and now costing £1.3 billion annually.
• By implementing a joined-up approach—as in the CAN Bill—we begin to once again work with our environment, not against it.
• Utilising nature-based solutions (or in other words, the sustainable management and restoration of ecosystems to benefit communities) is just one way to alleviate the impacts of flooding; while also sequestering carbon, creating jobs, and improving communities' connection with their local environment.
• Supporting and encouraging community-led projects, such as community energy, would build resilience—through local energy security—whilst also giving local citizens a say in the management of their environment.
• This doesn't just provide environmental and economic benefits, but also countless social benefits along the way.

• Climate and ecological breakdown is a governance risk to businesses everywhere.
• Local business supply chains will be even more disrupted by unpredictable and chaotic climate, and the costs to our businesses have the potential to skyrocket due to climate-related weather events or disasters.
• Moreover, the Green Finance Institute recently reported that the degradation of nature could cause a 12% loss to UK GDP. The CAN Bill can help mitigate this risk to our local businesses.

Note: In 2024, Zero Hour, alongside 70+ businesses in Bristol, delivered a letter to all candidates standing across the city, urging them to play a role in ensuring a bright future for the business of Bristol, and a healthy and prosperous future for residents, by supporting the CAN Bill. We’re proud to count on the support of many purposeful businesses for the CAN Bill, from Triodos Bank (who coordinated Bristol letter), Natura & Co and Silverback Films.

• The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth.
• Through reversing the destruction of nature, our wild spaces will start to bloom again; becoming places for all citizens to enjoy, gaining the associated health, happiness, and fitness benefits. The same applies to the gardens on our very doorstep.
• Helping maintain and revitalise local populations of much-cherished Cotswolds wildlife such as water voles, otters, kingfishers, dippers, fish, water shrews, which are currently under threat from declining habitats and ecosystems. Local wildlife is important to local people of all ages.

Note: In 2023, Zero Hour, in partnership with The Co-operative Bank and Friends of the Earth, organised a United for Nature petition, signed by 17,906 people, which called on the Government to reverse nature’s decline by 2030. Dr Mya-Rose Craig (‘Birdgirl’) led this campaign as part of (Lib Dem) Lord Redesdale’s stewardship of the CAN Bill through the House of Lords.