Celebrating four years of cross-party working on climate and nature

On Tuesday, Peers for the Planet’s (P4P) annual parliamentary reception took place in the House of Lords to celebrate four years of cross-party working on climate and nature.

The event brought together members of the P4P cross-party grouping and parliamentarians across both houses and political divides, as well as over 100 representatives from across diverse sectors and civil society who have supported the groups work.

P4P Chair Baroness Hayman, opened the event by paying tribute to the role of the Lords as an important cog in a very complex wheel by which we can make change happen for climate and nature, and reflected on a mammoth year for scrutinising and improving legislation with over 80 climate and nature related amendments tabled by P4P supporters this year in the Lords.

Sir Tim Smit, Co-founder of the Eden Project, was next up and delivered a rallying call to remember the people that we used to be when we were young and believed that change can happen. He said while it is easy to feel dystopian about the current state of the world, there is still so much we all agree on – we all want clean water, clean air, fertile soil and for the biodiversity of life to get richer and richer. The objective of creating law must be to give far more power to these things, and we must remind ourselves of the difference between knowing the cost of things, but not knowing the cost of not doing things.

Our next speakers reflected on the importance of collaboration across Peers and MPs to secure progress on tackling climate change and nature loss.

Philip Dunne MP, congratulated Peers for the Planet for setting an example in parliament on the importance and effectiveness of reaching cross-party agreement and achieving consensus to deliver change. He outlined how he has brought this spirit to his role as Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, his determination to focus on the positive things parliament is doing for climate and nature, and, crucially, the need to continue the close working between the Lords and Commons P4P has helped to convene in the next parliament.

P4P supporter, Baroness Young of Old Scone, said that even though we are in an election year, work on climate and nature is too important to be disrupted by party politics. She reflected on the ‘four C’s that define the P4P grouping’ – the importance of Collaboration, the Credibility in its analysis, its Cunning – as there are few pieces of legislation to which the group hasn’t been able to add climate and nature improvements, and its Continuity –the will to keep going to place a climate lens to the next bill, next question or next debate.

P4P Director, Lynette Huntley wrapped up the speeches by thanking everybody in the room for supporting the P4P grouping to secure such impactful and inspiring changes for climate and nature in the past year.

And in the spirit of continuing the sense of optimism and collaboration that was the theme of the event, the P4P team and departing guests ended the event by enjoying a rare rainbow over Westminster.