John Whitby MP: speeches

Speeches

• 16 Mar 2026 · Heating Oil Support · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the Government listening and acting so quickly on this subject. On 5 March, one of my constituents had an order of 500 litres of heating oil cancelled and was invited to remake the order, but he was then told that it would cost around twice as much as the previous order. Rob, who is on the state pension and is a wheelchair-user, could not afford to remake the order and therefore has had no central heating from 5 March. Does the Minister agree that all providers should be honouring contracts previously made?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Phone Use in Schools · Hansard source

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  What assessment has been made of the magnetic lockable pouches that are being used in some schools as a way of preventing any smartphone access during the entire school day, including lunch time and breaks? Could a national roll-out of those be considered?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Phone Use in Schools · Hansard source

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  4. What steps she is taking to help prevent the use of phones by children in schools.

• 26 Feb 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T4. A growing number of ex-footballers are suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a form of dementia caused by repeated heading of the ball. These ex-players feel let down by the Professional Footballers’ Association, which has only provided support for those suffering from CTE once funding from the NHS, social services and family assets has been exhausted, leaving taxpayers rather than football bodies footing the bill for care. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that our heroes of the game are given appropriate support in their hour of need and that competition organisers provide adequate funding for ex-players with CTE?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Local Power Plan · Hansard source

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  I have spoken to groups across my constituency such as Transition Crich and Derbyshire Dales Community Energy, which are working to create new community-owned energy projects in order to cut bills and drive down emissions. The £1 billion announced today will significantly help with their aims. However, these groups will grow faster if they are able to sell their energy directly to households in their communities. Could the Secretary of State therefore update us on what plans he has to implement local supply rights for community energy schemes?

• 5 Feb 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T4. Tideswell brook was deemed to be the second most pharmaceutically polluted river in the UK, despite being a site of special scientific interest and in a national park. Concentrations of some chemicals are currently more than 2.8 times higher than annual average environmental standards. Will the Government therefore follow the example recently set by the European Union, and require sewage treatment works to treat pharmaceutical micro- pollutants?

• 2 Feb 2026 · Support for Veterans · Hansard source

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  What assessment has the Minister made of the adequacy of housing provision for military veterans, particularly those with service-related injuries or disabilities, in rural areas such as Derbyshire Dales, where there is severe pressure on our affordable and supported housing stock?

• 2 Feb 2026 · Support for Veterans · Hansard source

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  16. What steps he is taking to improve support for veterans.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Local Authority Children’s Services · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Western. I thank the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) for making a powerful speech. As a foster carer, a member of an adoption panel and a former lead member of a tier 1 local authority, I have seen at first hand the damage that austerity has caused to local authorities across the country, in particular to children’s services. The lack of resource and support has contributed to the number of children in care rocketing. That in turn has created a placement sufficiency crisis in children’s social care. The number of children in residential care more than doubled between 2010 and 2024. That has presented extra pressures on authorities, as children have to be routinely placed at a distance from their local area. Every day that the previous Government were in power, an average of 140 children—equivalent to nearly five full classrooms—entered poverty. We now have a Minister for Children and Families who understands the problems we face, as he delivered the independent review of children’s social care. I will focus on some of the changes Labour has made to improve children’s services thus far. First, the continued roll-out of the Mockingbird programme, which brings new foster carers together with those who are more experienced, helping to create an extended family-like community around foster families, providing advice, expertise and support. A few weeks ago, I spoke to a group of foster carers about their experiences. Many told me of the positive impact the Mockingbird scheme had had on them. Therefore, I welcome the additional £40 million that the Government are investing in children’s social care, which is helping to ensure that programmes such as Mockingbird continue to be rolled out across the country. If we cannot attract enough new foster carers—and that is always a challenge—then we need to keep hold of and support the ones we have. Secondly, the Government are bringing in important changes in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that will protect local authorities from paying exorbitant fees to large, privately run children’s home providers. As I have said previously, many more children are living in residential care due to the placement sufficiency crisis. As has been mentioned this morning, in 2022 the largest 20 providers of children’s residential placements collectively made £310 million in profits. That was all off the back of the public purse. It is therefore welcome that, as a result of the Bill, large children’s placement providers will have to give regular financial information to a newly created financial oversight scheme. I am glad that the Bill will give the Government the power, if necessary, to cap the profits of private children’s home providers. There are many other positive changes to highlight, including those ensuring greater oversight on home schooling for children subject to a child protection order. The roll-out of the Staying Close programme will give care leavers from residential care—the number of whom has grown significantly—extra support to stay in housing and to get education and work. New requirements will ensure that all local authorities offer family group decision making—a move that will keep more children out of care altogether, and which in turn will save authorities money. We are opening new Best Start family hubs in all English local authorities—something that we have really missed. Taken together, the changes will alleviate pressures on local authority children’s services and give greater protection to our children and greater support to carers. It will, of course, take time for many of these changes to be felt. However, having been on the frontlines of children’s social care for more than two decades, I know that these changes will make a real and tangible difference to our most vulnerable and at-risk children.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Animal Welfare Strategy for England · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. Puppy farming is a cruel practice, with puppies taken early from their mothers, kept in poor conditions and sold through misleading adverts. It also creates distress for the families who unknowingly buy dogs raised like that. Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the animal welfare strategy’s commitment to end puppy farming, and call on the Government to ensure that the practice is ended as soon as possible?

• 21 Jan 2026 · Wales-England Livestock Movements · Hansard source

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  3. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on cross-border livestock movements.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Wales-England Livestock Movements · Hansard source

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  Given the integrated nature of livestock markets across England and Wales, farmers in my constituency still face challenges from restrictions linked to bluetongue. What discussions have occurred with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Government about minimising disruption to cross-border livestock movements arising from bluetongue testing and certification requirements?

• 20 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Israel is the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts, trying between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in that way each year. According to Save the Children, those children are at serious risk of contagious disease, hunger and abuse. Can the Minister reassure me that the Government are doing all that they can to put pressure on the Israeli Government to end this practice?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T9. Until covid, Hulland Ward had a local NHS clinic serving the community. However, it was closed, first temporarily and then permanently, leaving many vulnerable and elderly residents without healthcare and putting immense pressure on services in Brailsford. Will the Minister consider reopening that health centre? What steps is the Department taking to ensure that more people in Hulland Ward can access healthcare close to where they live?

• 5 Jan 2026 · Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  I was grateful for the opportunity to meet the Chancellor recently to highlight the impact that the changes to APR and BPR would have had on farmers in Derbyshire Dales. I therefore sincerely thank the Minister and the Chancellor for listening to me and other members of the Labour rural research group, and raising the tax-free allowance. Since the change was announced, more than 100 farmers have written to me to say how pleased they are about it. One farmer said: “This has been hanging over me all year, making me ill, and I can’t believe the relief I’m feeling right now.” Will the Minister or the Chancellor take the opportunity to visit a farm in Derbyshire Dales to see for themselves the positive difference that this change has made?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Palliative Care: North Derbyshire · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend mentioned other Derbyshire MPs. Many of my constituents have told me how Ashgate hospice has been there for them in their darkest moments. Paula Reeve told me that what Ashgate did for her mother, Joan Dempsey, “felt nothing short of miraculous...That time was a very precious gift and my family remain in the debt of all the staff at Ashgate”. Does my hon. Friend agree that we owe it to individuals like Paula to ensure that Ashgate hospice gets the funding it needs to continue these valued and vital services?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Small-scale Fracking Ban · Hansard source

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  Parts of Derbyshire are threatened by fracking because they fall within the Bowland-Hodder basin. We have a complex limestone geography, historical mine workings and natural cave systems. Fracking could undermine sub-surface stability and cause earthquakes, as it has elsewhere. Reform is promising to end the moratorium on fracking. That threatens the character of our natural landscapes and would further pollute our rivers. The last time I looked, we were in the middle of a climate emergency and the last thing that we need is more fossil fuels. Does my hon. Friend agree that a national ban on all types of fracking is the only way to protect our landscapes and environment?

• 9 Dec 2025 · Network Rail Timetable Changes: Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  The new East Midlands Railway timetable will remove a second morning train between Matlock and Derby, significantly impacting commuters in the Derbyshire Dales. That will jeopardise employment and students’ education. Will my hon. Friend join me in urging EMR to find a solution that would ensure that the early morning train can continue to run between Matlock and Derby?

• 1 Dec 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship today, Ms Barker. Years of austerity have stripped out much of the vital support that young families once received through—dare I say it?—Sure Start. The number of children in care has risen by 28%, the number of children in residential care homes has more than doubled, and 4 million children are living in poverty. I have been to many schools where teachers and staff bring in their own food; we know they are spending their own money to feed children in the school. It is against that backdrop that the Government are looking to pass the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Having been a foster carer for 25 years, a member of an adoption panel for a decade and the lead member of a tier 1 local authority, I recognise many of the problems that the Bill is trying to address and I fully support the Government’s determination to protect children. I will concentrate on just a few aspects of the Bill today. Rather than school staff having to put their hands in their pockets to feed children, we are rolling out free breakfast clubs. Of course, they will help with the cost of living by saving parents up to £450 a year and by ensuring that children get a good start to the day. Having visited a couple of our pilot schemes, I can also say that they seem to reduce the traffic chaos outside schools, as there is a steadier arrival of children at school throughout the morning. Over the coming years, local authorities will have to create more specialist places to address SEND pressures. At the moment, far too many children are being sent to high-cost private provision. The Bill enables local authorities to respond to this issue by being able—once again—to build new schools and run them themselves. As I have said already, the number of children in care has increased by nearly a third and the number of children living in residential care has more than doubled. The cost pressure of dealing with that has almost broken many local authorities, because there are nowhere near enough local authority places to accommodate such increases, so the majority of those children end up in high-cost residential placements. We know that excess profits have been made: in 2022, the largest 20 providers of children’s residential placements made over £300 million in profit, all off the back of the taxpayer. The Bill introduces financial oversight of the costs of residential care and independent fostering agencies. We must be assured that the state is not being ripped off. When those children—an increased number—have left residential care, they are going to need support. The Bill provides for the nationwide roll-out of the Staying Close programme, which increases the support for care leavers to find and stay in accommodation and get on a work-related path. I appreciate that some parents worry that creating a register of home educated children will interfere with their ability to choose how they educate their child. It is therefore important to stress that the overwhelming majority of parents who home school do so with the best interests of the child at heart: there are children who currently cannot cope in a school environment; there are children who want to be in school, but there is currently no school that can meet their needs; and there are parents who simply feel that educating at home is in the child’s best interests.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I welcome support for all children, but I am trying to make the point that there is no negative judgment here. I say to those parents, “If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.” I have also heard the Secretary of State say that privately and publicly. Unfortunately, though, there are people—although very few in number—who, when they start to be asked difficult questions by the authorities, move school, move house or take their child out of school to avoid scrutiny. It is only right that local authorities should be allowed to refuse home education for a child who is subject to a child protection plan or going through section 47 action. We need to know where children are and we need to keep them safe. There is no bigger reason to be in politics than to protect, safeguard and support our most vulnerable children. That is why I, for one, am here.

• 18 Nov 2025 · UNESCO: 80th Anniversary · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) on securing this important debate. UNESCO was founded from the ashes of the second world war out of a recognition that we must protect our unique cultural heritage for generations to come. The Derbyshire dales are filled with unique landscapes, heritage and history, and at the heart of this is Cromford Mills, which was built in 1771 and was the world’s first water-powered cotton spinning mill. Alongside other sites in Derbyshire, it ushered in the birth of the factory system and the industrial revolution, helping pioneer changes that would leave our nation and the world irrevocably changed. To visit Arkwright’s mill in Cromford is to visit the very birthplace of mass production. It would be remiss of me not to mention Masson Mills just half a mile away, another of Arkwright’s mills, built in 1783. A commercial spinning mill until 1991, it is now home to a textile museum and, incidentally, powered by hydro-electric energy generated on site. However, Arkwright’s mill at Cromford was his first, unique in having survived as a cohesive group of buildings, and therefore is a key destination within the Derwent Valley Mills world heritage site, which is a designated UNESCO world heritage site and the only UNESCO site in the east midlands. The designation of the site helps to ensure that future generations can continue to visit and learn from this historic location, with more than 200,000 visitors each year. It is hard to believe that before the Arkwright Society purchased the site in 1979, the site appeared to be heading for demolition. By that time, many of the buildings had fallen into disrepair, much of it had been contaminated with lead chromate and many of the historic features had been obscured by modern buildings. However, the hard work and vision of the Arkwright Society saved this site of international significance and turned it into the tourist attraction that it is today. The designation of Cromford Mills as a UNESCO world heritage site also aided that process, as it helped secure funding, boost visitor numbers and gave it legal protection. Unfortunately, the hard work of preserving and restoring the site is not yet complete. It costs over £4,000 each day to maintain the site. Although the Arkwright Society generates income through catering, retail, heritage tours and tenancies, and receives additional income from donations and grants, this income remains less than it costs to maintain Cromford Mills. Fortunately, the Arkwright Society has managed to secure £1.3 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to transform the four-storey mill building located at the heart of the site. None the less, although this funding is welcome, Cromford Mills needs further support to ensure that the site can remain financially viable for future generations. In particular, the Arkwright Society needs £150,000 a year to stabilise core operations and around £1.2 million in match funding to enable the full delivery of the renewal project. I urge the Government and donors to do whatever they can to ensure that the Arkwright Society can access the funding it needs. I also encourage the Minister to instruct officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to speak with the Arkwright Society and Cromford Mills to see what support they might be able to provide through these challenging times. Cromford Mills demonstrates that our industrial legacy is not just a story about our past. Instead, with the right investment, such sites can continue to educate, teach and inspire for generations to come. UNESCO’s founders believed that we could create peace and prosperity by preserving our cultural history and heritage, so I urge the Government to keep investing in our history. After all, a country that preserves its past is better placed to shape its future.

• 13 Nov 2025 · Rural Crime · Hansard source

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  2. What steps she is taking to help increase prosecution rates for rural crime.

• 13 Nov 2025 · Rural Crime · Hansard source

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  In Derbyshire we have seen a significant increase in reports of agricultural crime; police figures show a 45% increase in the past 12 months. Earlier this year one of my constituents, Jane Bassett, had her farm broken into and a significant amount of specialised equipment was stolen. Such attacks can be traumatic for victims due to how isolated many farms are, and farms are targets for criminals due to their high-value equipment. What steps are being taken to ensure that those who target our hard-working farmers and their equipment and machinery are successfully prosecuted?

• 23 Oct 2025 · Decarbonisation of Cement · Hansard source

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  Cement may not grab headlines, but it quite literally holds up our country. Virtually every hospital, school, bridge and home is built using cement. Without a thriving cement industry, it will not be possible to deliver the renewal our nation needs and the 1.5 million homes the Government have committed to build. Derbyshire is the proud home of Britain’s cement and lime industry. This critical material has been made there for generations, sustaining families, supporting our local economies and making the midlands one of our country’s great industrial powerhouses. Today, Derbyshire and neighbouring Staffordshire account for around 40% of all the cement and lime produced in the UK, and the industry supports more than 2,000 high-quality and well-paid jobs in our communities. However, cement also produces significant carbon emissions, with around 7% of all carbon emissions globally coming from cement—more than come shipping and aviation combined. To put that in scale, in the UK, cement produces more carbon emissions than the entire city of Birmingham. We simply cannot tackle the climate crisis, safeguard our planet for future generations and deliver a net zero economy without tackling this issue. At the same time, our UK cement industry faces increased pressure, with UK cement production now at its lowest levels since 1950 and imported cement making up an increasing share of the market. Decarbonisation should never mean deindustrialisation, and without action, we risk losing high-skilled jobs across the midlands and the north and an industry that is vital to our nation. It is therefore essential that we invest in new technologies and make the UK, and Derbyshire in particular, world-leading producers of clean, green cement. Many of these technological innovations are already being pioneered right here in Britain. For example, Cambridge Electric Cement has developed a means of recycling used concrete back into cement, and the Institution of Structural Engineers notes that nine British-based cement innovations are working to take captured carbon and store it within the concrete itself. I was also pleased to recently meet with Coolbrook, which is developing a heater that will heat air up to 1,700°C without burning fossil fuels. That would allow cement plants to replace the fuel used for burning with electric heating and reduce the amount of CO 2 produced by between 30% to 40%. I encourage the Government to do all they can to support those emerging technologies and to use their research and development funding to ensure that such exciting innovations become commercially viable. However, even if we reduce emissions from energy to zero, two-thirds of cement emissions are the by-product of the chemical process used to produce cement, and these emissions cannot be cut without carbon capture and storage. That means that even if all the exciting developments I have mentioned succeed, we cannot achieve zero-carbon cement without carbon capture and storage. Indeed, the fact that carbon dioxide is created as part of the chemical process used to make cement means that only carbon capture can eliminate the majority of emissions from its production. To be clear, these projects have nothing to do with prolonging the use of fossil fuels. It is entirely about ensuring that we can safeguard this vital and important industry and protect the secure, high-quality, unionised jobs that are rooted in local communities such as the Hope valley. Without carbon capture and storage, we either have to stop producing cement or we fail to decarbonise—neither is an option that we can afford. That is why Peak Cluster is so important. Based in the Hope valley, it is the world’s largest cement decarbonisation project, with the potential to decarbonise 40% of the UK’s cement and lime production. Under this project, carbon produced in Derbyshire through the production of cement will be captured and transported to Morecambe Net Zero, which will repurpose the Morecambe bay gas fields into a permanent and secure carbon storage facility, capable of storing more than 1 billion tonnes of CO 2 . That is a real example of how a just transition can protect workers and communities while reducing carbon emissions. This world-leading innovation will also deliver major economic benefits for our country, supporting more than 13,000 jobs and attracting around £5 billion of private investment. It also has the potential to remove more than 3 million tonnes of CO 2 each year, equivalent to a quarter of all the emissions created in Derbyshire and Staffordshire every single year. That is why I was delighted that, in July, the National Wealth Fund announced that it would make its first venture into carbon capture and invest £28 million in Peak Cluster. This historic step demonstrates how the National Wealth Fund can play a major role in crowding in private investment and create the good, clean jobs of the future. It is estimated that every £1 of public investment in the project will deliver £4 of benefits. This is an economic opportunity that we cannot waste. However, the job is not done yet. The investment from the National Wealth Fund is hugely welcome, but it is only the start. For the project to reach final investment decisions and unlock billions of pounds in private capital, industry needs one thing above all: certainty. At present, there is no clear route to market for carbon capture and storage projects beyond the track 1 and track 2 clusters. Without a defined framework for projects like Peak Cluster, private investors are left in limbo, which risks stalling progress just when momentum is building. We have seen too many examples in the past where projects received initial support from Government, only to stall because the next stage of policy never followed through. This cannot be another one of those cases. I have two specific questions for the Minister. First, will he confirm that the Government will establish a clear route to market for industrial carbon capture projects beyond track 1 and track 2? Establishing a clear route to market would give investors and operators confidence that a final investment decision on Peak Cluster and Morecambe Net Zero will be made within this Parliament. The sooner that is done, the sooner businesses will have the certainty needed to invest, and the sooner all of us will benefit from the growth that such investments will deliver. Secondly, will the Minister commit to introducing a contract for difference-style model for carbon capture to ensure that projects like Peak Cluster have the revenue certainty needed to attract private capital? Contracts for difference played a key role in enabling the widespread growth in renewable energy, and can also play a major role in supporting the growth of carbon capture technology. However, investing in clean cement here in the UK will be of no use if our builders import more polluting cement from abroad. The amount of imported cement has tripled over the last 20 years. Not only does imported cement have a higher carbon footprint, but the use of such cement undermines our British industry. The Government’s announcement that they will introduce a carbon border adjustment mechanism is therefore very welcome news, and demonstrates that this Labour Government will not allow our industrial industries to be offshored. Furthermore, builders must also be incentivised to use cleaner, greener cement, and this will only be done if there are clear incentives to do so. It is therefore time for us to legislate to ensure that all developments report on how much carbon is released through the production and use of construction materials. Mandatory embodied carbon reporting is needed to drive down the emissions released from construction. Mandatory reporting would provide consistency to the construction industry, which must currently deal with a patchwork of local regulations, and reporting would also help stimulate the growth of lower-carbon building materials. Only sufficient demand will enable low-carbon technologies to develop at scale, and this demand can only be achieved through appropriate regulation. The EU has plans to introduce mandatory embodied carbon reporting from 2028, and to set project limits on embodied carbon from 2030. When we left the EU, it was made clear that we would not reduce our environmental and climate standards, and I encourage the Government to align with the EU. The introduction of embodied carbon requirements in the EU also means that if we fail to decarbonise cement in the UK, our cement industry could be locked out of such markets, as builders will be required to use only low-carbon products in construction. It is time once again to forge our future “in the white heat of technology”. By acting now, we can safeguard our historic industries, support our Government’s mission for growth, and deliver a more sustainable and greener world. It is time to be ambitious and to back British industry. It is, after all, desirable that the materials that build Britain are made in Britain. I finish by returning to Peak Cluster. After all, whatever other positive interventions we make, simple chemistry means that we cannot cut the majority of emissions from cement without carbon capture. If we do not invest now, we will simply kick this can down the road, allowing other countries to move ahead of us and develop this emerging industry before we do. Today, I once again encourage the Minister to invest in jobs, British industry and decarbonisation. That can be done only if we establish a clear route for carbon capture projects not included in track 1 and track 2, and I encourage the Minister to establish such a route as quickly and urgently as possible.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill · Hansard source

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  Our oceans are teeming with complex life, but today they are also in a state of crisis. Climate change, pollution, overfishing, habitat destruction and plastics are all placing our oceans under strain like never before. Our oceans are paying the price, with more than a third of UK fish stocks currently overfished and more than a third of marine mammals at risk of extinction. The high seas treaty, which the Bill will ratify into UK law, represents a significant and much-needed step forward. For the first time, the treaty creates a legal mechanism to establish marine protected areas in international waters—a crucial tool to ensure that by 2030, and in accordance with the global biodiversity framework, 30% of the world’s land and sea will be protected. However, the success of the treaty will depend on whether it is enforced, so I urge the Government to ensure that adequate funding is provided to help to protect these newly created marine protected areas. We must also do our bit at home to protect marine life here in the UK. Some 38% of UK waters are now designated as marine protected areas. However, during our inquiry into the marine environment, the Environmental Audit Committee heard that these sites lacked sufficient protection to contribute towards our targets of protecting 30% of land and sea. While Government proposals to nearly triple the amount of seabed protection from bottom trawling are welcome, I therefore urge the Government to enact the recommendation from the Environmental Audit Committee and ban bottom trawling in all marine protected areas; without a ban, it is hard to see how we can claim that these areas are protected at all. Bottom trawling is a highly destructive practice that tears up the seabed, destroys habitats and releases carbon stored in the ocean floor. As David Attenborough said in his film “Ocean”, the idea of bulldozing a rainforest causes outrage, but we do the same underwater every day. We also cannot protect our oceans without addressing the climate crisis. The oceans have absorbed 90% of all excess heat caused by climate change, and this excess heat is resulting in widespread marine heatwaves that are killing marine ecosystems and causing our oceans to acidify. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been clear that if we allow warming to reach 1.5°C, the vast majority of coral reefs will be lost forever. The willingness of some of our opponents to abandon climate commitments means that it is on us to go further and faster and to do all that we can to protect nature and stop the climate crisis. This Bill represents a welcome move in that direction.