On Saturday 21 June, Shrewsbury MP Julia Buckley joined a community Q&A about Climate and Nature issues at the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The event was hosted by Zero Hour (the campaign for the Climate and Nature Bill), Better Shrewsbury Transport*, Up Sewage Creek and Shrewsbury Vegans. It was chaired by Richard Grindle, CEO of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. 

Julia took questions from the audience on a range of topics including river pollution, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the North West Relief Road, factory farming, and nature loss.

Jamie Russell from Zero Hour, who helped organise the event, says:

‘Julia was exceedingly generous with her time and fielded robust questions on a range of topics. She explained her desire to use her role on the Environmental Audit Committee** to push the Government to be bolder in its response to the Climate and Nature crisis, and agreed to join crossparty MPs who have signed the Early Day Motion in support of the Climate and Nature Bill.*** She also talked very powerfully about being shocked by a Parliamentary briefing from leading scientists about the devastating rate of change being witnessed in Antarctica. Over the next few months, Zero Hour will be supporting local residents in constituencies across the UK as they set up similar community Q&A events with their MPs to push them to prioritise the climate and nature crisis in all aspects of their work. If you’d like to be involved, get in touch at campaign@zerohour.uk’.

***The Climate and Nature Bill returns to Parliament on 11 July. The Zero Hour campaign is asking residents to write to the Prime Minister ahead of this date asking him to give the Bill emergency debate time, as well as writing to your MP to request they sign the Early Day Motion on this much-needed Bill.

• Write to the PM to ask for debate time.

• Write to your MP about the Early Day Motion.

• Join Zero Hour at The Climate Coalition's mass lobby of MPs in Westminster on 9 July. 

*With reference to Shrewsbury, Julia is supporting the active travel initiatives associated with the Big Town Plan and better integration of rail and bus services.

**Julia is a member of the Environment Audit Committee and pointed out that the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (ESNZ) is more directly involved in plans to achieve net zero, so we should consider how to influence that committee too.