Purpose of this project

The Climate Election project was established to:  

• Make candidate views on climate change and net zero available to voters.   

• Promote the cross-party consensus on the need to act on climate change.   

• Increase participation in the democratic process, specifically in relation to climate change and net zero.   

Parliament has decided by large majorities that the UK should be legally bound to reduce its harmful emissions to net zero by 2050. The scientific evidence indicates that global temperatures will only stop rising when the world reach net zero emissions.  

Britain has a track record of leadership on climate change. The Climate Change Act (2008) contained the first legally binding climate change mitigation target set by any country. In 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to set a legal target to cut emissions to net zero, designed to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. In 2022 the UK again led in its presidency of COP26 in Glasgow.  

In recent years the cross-party consensus in the UK has been under pressure. Some have suggested that the UK should weaken its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, while others have argued that the target is not ambitious enough.  

The Climate Change Committee – the independent statutory adviser to Parliament – has made it clear that the UK is currently not on track to meet its 2050 net zero target. If candidates from all political parties pledge to put the UK back on track, it could once again demonstrate international leadership on climate change. 

Who is backing this project? A statement from our supervisory committee

Joint statement from the cross-party supervisory committee for England and Wales

Climate Change is the biggest material threat that faces the world. Together we can defeat it.

We all have a part to play and already the UK has led the way. The Climate Change Act, passed in 2008, was supported by all the main political parties. It was the first legally binding climate change mitigation target set by any country. In 2019 Parliament passed a new Act which bound Britain to reach NetZero by 2050. In England and Wales, the Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and Plaid Cymru are all committed to reaching NetZero by 2050. We want to make sure that this cross-party consensus holds.

This website was therefore developed to encourage the democratic process. We don’t tell you how to vote – that is your democratic choice. However, we think that voters should know which individual candidates support urgent action and which don’t. We want to see an election which recommits the UK to climate leadership and the urgent action needed to reach Net Zero. That means we need MPs of all major parties who will stand up and be counted when it comes to the battle against climate change.

We are members of these four political parties. As we sit in the House of Lords, we cannot be candidates for election to the House of Commons. So we ensure that this website is fair and unbiased. We want you to have the information that makes democracy work.

Lord Deben (Conservative), Lady Kennedy of the Shaws (Labour), Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat), and Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru).