Environment Bill Petition

House of Lords

The Environment Bill will only protect human health and the natural world if it is enforceable. At the moment, it allows ministers to do things, but in only a handful areas does it give them the legal responsibility to act, for which they can be held accountable.

We need to make sure that the bill:

- Creates an Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) that has independence of funding and appointments

- Doesn't allow the government to direct OEP's work or hide reports

- Ensures the OEP can take court action against the government and other public bodies when they get things wrong

- Commits the UK government to work to make ecocide an international crime

- Ensures that Ministers MUST meet targets, interim targets and stick to environmental principles

By signing this petition, you are calling on members of the House of Lords to back amendments that give us an Environment Bill that will deliver what's urgently needed for people and nature, MPs to support them, and the government to accept those amendments.

To: House of Lords
From: [Your Name]

The Environment Bill will only protect human health and the natural world if it is enforceable. At the moment, it allows ministers to do things, but in only a handful areas does it give them the legal responsibility to act, for which they can be held accountable. I support amendments to ensure there are clear rules to protect us all.

I support new principles to guide government action: that we have to live within planetary limits, consider the wellbeing of future generations, and move away from targetting GDP growth as a central government policy. The UK also needs to be leading on campaigning to make ecocide an international crime.

I support the new Office for Environmental Protection being independent, transparent and having the power to take the government to court. Lords' amendments are an essential guarantee against the government directing the OEP's work, leaving it toothless and under-resourced, as Natural England and the Environment Agency currently are.

I call on members of the House of Lords to back amendments that give us an Environment Bill that will deliver what's urgently needed for people and nature, MPs to support them, and the government to accept those amendments.​