John Milne MP: Who won the Climate and Nature Bill debate?

Essentially it came down to a choice. We understood from the start that the government was never going to let this bill pass intact, whatever they’d suggested in opposition. Our choice was to force it to a vote, which would have scored political points, but with no practical result beyond a feel-good factor. Or we could look to extract a compromise. Threatened with rebellion on their own backbenches, the government was prepared to offer concessions to avoid a vote that would reveal embarrassing divisions.

There have been 5 attempts in 5 years to pass versions of this legislation. All of them came away with nothing because the government of the day would not support them. Roz decided that something was better than nothing and agreed a compromise.

I congratulate Roz on making progress where so many have tried before. She is a remarkably determined woman, as her life-story amply shows. Before entering politics, she became the first woman to row solo across three oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. As she said in her speech, there’s nothing like being alone on a vast ocean to make you feel close to nature.

After intense negotiations that continued behind the scenes right through the debate, the government agreed to accelerate a number of manifesto commitments, including a Land Use Framework and ratification of the Global Ocean Treaty.

Crucially, from now on they have committed to an annual statement of progress from the Secretary of State regarding net zero targets. For too long we’ve had governments who love announcing targets while not actually doing much to meet them in practice.