Climate and Ecological Emergency Declaration

At the current trajectory, we will reach this limit as early as 2030. Simply put, there is an environmental emergency and we must act now through bold and urgent leadership.

A climate and ecological emergency is an internally recognised declaration being used around the world to publicly proclaim concern over the IPPC findings.

The Welsh Government, Scottish Government, UK Government, EU Parliament, Local Authorities, the Environment Agency, business and professional member organisations have all declared a climate emergency.

Recently Comic Relief, Power to Change, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity joined 40 other grant-giving bodies and charities who have already signed up to the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, pledging to take action to tackle the climate emergency.

Many high-profile businesses are making public commitments to lead on climate action, either setting a deadline to become net-zero or even going beyond that and becoming climate positive.

Buglife’s Declaration of a Climate and Ecological Emergency

Buglife recognises that the destruction of the environment typified by accelerating climate chaos and vanishing wildlife species has reached the point where it is appropriate to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency, and we do so.

From our perspective, as an invertebrate conservation charity, we see all too clearly how habitat destruction and fragmentation, pollution and climate change intertwine with increasing potency to prevent the flourishing, and even continued existence, of invertebrate species and humans.

In particular:

• We recognise the global crisis we face from overheating, extreme weather events, and increasing ecological loss. In particular the impact on invertebrate survival;
• We hold the key to developing and implementing solutions to the climate and ecological emergency;
• We recognise our own activities can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.

We therefore commit to:

• Advocating for ambitious levels of commitment to action on our climate and ecology by decision makers at all levels, including the resources to enable action at all levels of society.
• Creating climate and ecological champions of our members, stakeholders and the public, inspiring urgent action to tackle this shared crisis, using our ‘No Insectinction’ as a focus.

• Reviewing our areas of operation to identify where they are contributing greenhouse gases. To then produce a revised Greening Policy by December 2020 that will address the sources of Buglife greenhouse gas emissions and that aims to absolutely minimise our footprint within the scope of affordable measures. Setting milestones for reducing our per capita outputs from current levels and ultimately aiming to achieve zero postproduction emissions by 2040.
• Continue to devise and implement practical programmes for invertebrate conservation that contribute to ecological recovery, carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.
• Promote the public benefits of good ecological management in delivering resilience and adaptation measures in response to climate risks.
• Working with our member organisations and affiliations to collectively promote, sponsor and share the latest invertebrate fauna scientific evidence, best practice and innovation.

As part of our delivery work Buglife has rewetted Fannyside Muir and is currently restoring the hydrology of 10 other degraded peat bogs. Combined with our success saving sites such as Aucheninnes Moss from destruction we are likely to be responsible for locking up more CO₂ than we would be able to produce.