Imagine waking up in a warm home without the worry of eye-watering energy bills because your home is fuelled by cheap, reliable and renewable energy. Your morning journey to your fair-paid green job is a breeze, thanks to affordable, dependable public transport. When you pop out for a lunchtime walk, you notice nature thriving around you – your local green spaces are bursting with life.
This isn’t pure fantasy, but an actual reality that our government could secure for us if it delivered a bold and fair climate plan. We'll dive into what this climate plan should cover and how it can actually create a greener, fairer future.
Why Friends of the Earth is demanding a bold and fair climate plan
Back in 2008 we ran an incredibly successful campaign – called The Big Ask – which resulted in the creation of the UK’s Climate Change Act. This was the world’s first law setting legally binding targets for cutting climate emissions. The pioneering Act paved the way for many new climate laws enacted around the world. Thanks to the law we campaigned for and succeeded in establishing back in 2008, we’re reducing emissions and winning more battles today.
Despite this victory, successive Conservative governments have failed to fully implement the Climate Change Act. To make the most out of the Act, we need a bold climate plan that details exactly how we’ll cut emissions. The plan is supposed to outline how the UK will be on track for net zero emissions by 2050 and meet its shorter-term targets. These include the UK's pledge under international law to cut emissions by over two-thirds by 2030.
We took the last government to court in 2022 because its original climate plan was weak. The court ruled in our favour and ordered the government to produce a new plan by March 2023. But this was still inadequate so we went to court for a second time – and won again in May 2024. The most recent court victory means that the new UK government is legally obliged to write a new climate plan by May 2025.
Facing the human cost of climate breakdown
In addition, over recent years sky-high energy prices have caused fuel poverty levels to soar, while oil and gas companies – who produce climate-harming emissions – have made record-breaking profits. The consequences of rising energy costs have deepened the UK’s inequality levels. If we don’t secure a bold plan to flip the script, millions of people will continue to struggle to pay their energy bills.
We’ve also watched global news stories of climate chaos unfold, witnessed people across the UK face perilous futures due to coastal erosion, and lived through record high temperatures and extreme weather events like floods, droughts and storms. Disabled people, people of colour, women and those on low incomes are some of the worst affected by climate breakdown. This is a direct consequence of years of government inaction.
But it doesn’t have to be this way forever. We now have a crucial window of opportunity to influence the UK government’s upcoming climate plan. We'll all benefit if it does what it’s supposed to. Think cheap and reliable energy, warm homes, clean air, widespread public transport, thriving nature and well-paid green jobs. This is because positive climate action doesn't just improve the environment, but all areas of our lives.
What should a bold and fair climate plan include?
The government’s new plan must be comprehensive and ambitious. As well as meeting our climate commitments, crucially it must put fairness at the heart of climate action. We want a climate plan that benefits us all, with no one left behind. So how will we do this?
Our campaign, The Big Climate Plan, has 5 key demands:
- Keep the UK government’s promises to cut carbon emissions with policies that add up, developed with expert input and in-depth public engagement.
- Invest in our future by fairly funding local, national and international climate action. This includes making rich polluters pay.
- Ensure everyone can live in a warm home powered by cheap, clean energy.
- Deliver affordable, reliable public transport and clean air for all.
- Help people find well-paid green jobs by providing investment and training, especially for sectors and places most at risk of being left behind.
We’ve developed policies that we believe should be included in the government’s climate plan to meet these 5 demands. A new climate plan, as outlined above, would get the UK back on track to meet its climate targets.
Ambitious, comprehensive and fair climate action would not only cut carbon emissions, but also ensure a greener, fairer and healthier world for all.
How will Friends of the Earth pressure the government to produce a strong climate plan?
We’ll be using a range of tactics to make sure the government's new climate plan not only meets all our climate targets but also ensures fairness.
- Build public support for climate action: people power delivers strong climate action and we’re going to ramp it up. We're working to rally more people around our Big Climate Plan campaign and use this momentum to pressure the government to deliver a bold and fair climate plan.
- Work with key partners and our network: we’ll work with influential decision makers, organisations and leaders to lobby the government to create a bold climate plan. Our network of local action groups will be applying pressure to MPs to support a strong climate plan.
- Advocate for fairness in climate policy: we'll keep pushing the government to adopt our key demands for the new climate plan, which put fairness at its core. Our research will show how bold solutions can put people first. Not just from a policy perspective, but from a personal one too.
- Leverage our legal successes: our award-winning legal team has a strong track record of using the law to challenge environmental injustice and has defeated the government in court many times over the past decade. We’re prepared to take legal action again if the new government’s plan continues to fall short of what’s required.
Together, we’re working to make sure the government feels the pressure to produce a bold and fair climate plan.
How can I push for a new climate plan?
The new government now faces a critical choice: will it choose to carry on down our current path and miss UK climate targets, or opt for a greener, fairer future that’ll benefit both people and planet?
Our message is clear. There’s only one viable option on the table: a bold and fair climate plan that’ll work for us all, with no one left behind. The climate plan we want the government to produce will improve people’s lives through lower energy bills, warm homes, clean air, better public transport and well-paid green jobs – it’s a win in many areas. Having an ambitious and comprehensive plan, particularly one that ensures we meet our international climate commitments, will be vital if the UK is to achieve the global climate leadership it’s pledged.
In May 2025 the government will have to publish its new climate plan. This is where you come in. Public support has proven its power before – it helped us win the Climate Change Act via The Big Ask campaign, which is allowing us to hold government to account to this day. People power has always been our strongest asset. Now it’s time to tell this government we demand bold climate leadership. With enough public pressure, our collective voice will be too big to ignore.
Demand a Big Climate Plan that delivers not just a greener future, but a fairer one too.
The last government's climate plan has been ruled unlawful by the High Court
The last government's climate plan has been ruled unlawful by the High Court
