It’s been almost 2 years since the House of Commons declared a Climate and Environment Emergency.

Yet the need for ambitious action could not be more urgent. Green MP Caroline Lucas's full speech for 9 February's Adjournment Debate on the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, or CEE Bill.

We’re nearing a cliff edge of cascading Earth system collapse. The narrow window for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is closing fast.

It’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most consequential decade in human history.

The experience of Covid-19 has demonstrated that – with a collective understanding of the nature of a crisis - governments can take radical, unprecedented action.

The scale and ramifications of the emergency requires us to set aside party differences and reach for the new vision of human prosperity that we know is possible.

With sufficient political will, we can co-operate to ensure we all thrive within the limits of our planet.

But this isn’t going to happen without new legislation that gives us a framework commensurate with the science - and with reality.

The CEE Bill is that new legislation.

It brings the future into the present, and our responsibility to the future into the present too.