Children buzz to Parliament to demand law to protect nature and climate

Campaigners with their beautiful handmade banner and giant bees outside Parliament

School children joined The Salvation Army, Green Christian and Zero Hour at the Houses of Parliament yesterday, 9 April, to call for a new law to protect climate and nature.

Children descended on the Houses of Parliament this Easter, armed with handmade postcards and giant bee props, to demand that MPs pass new legislation that takes a coordinated approach to tackling both the climate and nature crises, based on the latest science and a commitment to global justice.

The colourful delegation brought hundreds of postcards decorated with thumb-print bee designs, made by children at churches, community events and schools across the country as part of Green Christian's "Bee a Climate and Nature Champion" campaign. They were joined by representatives from The Salvation Army, Green Christian and Zero Hour campaigners behind a "Bee a Nature Champion" banner created by the children themselves.

The children's postcards call on the Government to give the natural world legal protection, and today those demands reached the Houses of Parliament.

Green Christian said: "the popularity of this campaign amongst both children and adults is a clear sign that in the next session of parliament MPs must prioritise a science-based approach to respond to the climate and nature crisis."

Oscar, aged 10, from London, said: "I want my future to be full of trees, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers - and bees! I feel depressed thinking that might not happen. We need a law to protect nature, and we need nature to survive, and to be happy and healthy.
More MPs are needed to support this law so it has a chance of being passed so please, everyone, support this campaign and let's make that happen!"

Lucas, age five, from Wellow, Somerset said: "We need to protect nature. I like hearing the birds and seeing wildlife."

Major Heather Poxon, Environmental Officer for The Salvation Army in the UK and Ireland: "The Salvation Army has always stood alongside the most vulnerable, and the climate and nature crisis threatens the future of the children here today and the generations that will follow them. When children ask us to act, we have a responsibility to listen. Caring for creation is not an optional extra for Christians, it is at the heart of who we are called to be."

Barbara Echlin, Vice-Chair of Green Christian: "We are living through extraordinary times and this calls for extraordinary action. The climate and nature crises are not separate problems, they are one emergency caused by the way we have pushed God's creation to breaking point. As Christians we have a duty to respond. These children have made postcards, crafted bees, painted a beautiful banner and come to Parliament because they understand something simple and profound: we must protect creation. And we need a legal framework to do that. We're calling on the Government to take it seriously."