Together with our network of local action groups, we work with politicians at all levels:
- Parliament at Westminster
- Wales and Northern Ireland Assemblies
- European Union
- Local councils and regional government
We push the environment up the agenda by knowing where your pressure is best focused and understanding where the blockages to change are.
Our experts are respected by politicians. They win arguments with credible evidence and analysis. And they bring together MPs, coalition partners, and activists to press for change.
How laws can help
The UK benefits from a number of domestic laws that aim to keep people and the environment safe. These range from limits on emissions to bans on dangerous chemicals and prohibitions on practices associated with poor animal welfare.
When environmental protections are included in laws, it makes it harder for governments to ignore their environmental commitments, or to change existing safeguards without good reason. When rules need changing, experts can be consulted and their views considered by MPs during a public debate in parliament. Putting protections into law can also make it easier for people to follow the rules, and report others who are not complying, by making the law clear.
This means that the strong laws and high standards we need to tackle the ecological and climate crisis rely on good parliamentary scrutiny, transparency, and good enforcement of these decisions.
One example of how a strong law can help drive action is the 2008 Climate Change Act, which we campaigned for. This required the government to set out a process to reduce carbon emissions, and set up a Climate Change Committee to ensure the law was stuck to. But without scrutiny the original plans for the Climate Change Act wouldn’t have been strong enough, and if it hadn’t been made a law, government could have carried on ignoring the UKs climate obligations.
How can I lobby my MP?
Your MP wants to hear from people like you. As their constituents, you decide whether or not to vote for them in the next election, so they’ll want to know what’s troubling you. Keep them up to date with the issues that concern you, and let them know whether you think they’re doing a good job or not.
If you tell your MP why high UK environmental standards are important to you, why you think our food should be sustainable, or what makes you worried about a certain trade deal, this may persuade them to speak on your behalf in Parliament, and defend our standards.
You can find out what your MP has already said on the "theyworkforyou" website.
Support from former MPs
It is important to recognise the role played by Friends of the Earth, who have almost unendingly pursued our understanding of the arguments and we are truly grateful for that.
Alan Simpson MP, former Labour MP
Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign is one of the most successful campaigns that I have seen. [It] really caused politicians of all parties to get more serious about the need for legislation in this area.
Greg Clark, former Local Government MinisterIt would have been absolutely impossible for those of us who were campaigning for [the Climate Change Act] inside Parliament to achieve that without the external pressure that came from all of you - and Friends of the Earth in particular.
Martin Horwood, former MP and Liberal Democrat Party environment spokesperson
It would have been absolutely impossible for those of us who were campaigning for [the Climate Change Act] inside Parliament to achieve that without the external pressure that came from all of you - and Friends of the Earth in particular.
Martin Horwood, former MP and Liberal Democrat Party environment spokesperson
