Welcome to Green Watch Election Special. This is the place to get expert opinion on all the sustainability issues being discussed during election season.
On 23rd May 2024 UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that a general election would take place on 4th July. Over the next few weeks each political party will lay out their commitments for the next parliament and beyond. The Grantham Centre Green Watch team will be watching with interest, providing expert opinion whenever the conversation turns to green issues; whether its energy, decarbonisation, climate adaption, resources use, water and pollution, transport, housing or anything else that could impact our vision of a sustainable future.
We are now into the final days of the General Election campaign. Do you already know who you will be voting for on the 4th July or are you still on the fence? Are you having any last minute doubts? Or are you just struggling to keep up with all the election news? Then don’t worry, our Green Watch team is here to help.
In our final Green Watch Election Special blog, we have created a handy summary of what we’ve learnt over the past weeks from each of the parties. We’ve also included some analysis and coverage highlights as well as some useful tools to help you make your decision before you head to the polls.
Climate change, despite being the largest crisis we collectively face, and widely seen by the electorate as an important issue, was largely absent from the televised debates. The discussion mostly descended into bickering, with leaders arguing about the veracity of each other’s facts on tax.
Analysis by Carbon Brief has broken down the key commitments shown what each of the party has made in their manifestos. They have also done excellent work looking at the numbers behind some of the headlines which have dominated what little discussion there has been. Claims and counterclaims around affordability, and fairness of impact have been made with only the Green Party seeming to understand the sheer scale of action needed, and that short term investment is needed for long term viability.
In the Guardian article published on the 1st July in the Guardian, Ed Milliband, a long term advocate for climate action has stated that any incoming Labour government will look to return the UK to a position of global leadership on the subject.
There are some climate change champions in the prospective parliamentary candidates, and some, what we might politely call sceptics, or more accurately deniers. It is always interesting to look beneath the surface of proclamations. MPwatch.org have dug around into who funds MPs and their campaigns to see if there could be correlation between the views exposed and the cash received.
It is not our role to tell people how to vote, there will be multiple issues that are important to you and shape your view of the local representative you wish to vote for, or the party you would like to form the next government.
One thing is clear though, this has to be the last election where climate, nature and injustice are side issues, where political parties continue to put off until later the action we need now.
We will continue to call out green wash where we see it in the action of political leaders through the course of the next parliament. We will challenge claims where there is not the evidence to back them up.
Have you seen any cases of potential greenwashing that you would like our Green Watch team to investigate? Then please get in touch at: grantham@sheffield.ac.uk
Where is nature in the election? That’s what 300 diverse environmental groups will be demanding an answer to when they converge in London on Saturday, 22 June. They plan to march to Parliament Square to pressure UK politicians to put nature on the agenda and show domestic and global leadership.
The Restore Nature Now coalition have five key demands. Our Green Watch team have looked at each one to see how well aligned the major parties’ manifesto commitments are to these demands, and to ask: where is nature in this election?
“Farmers manage 70% of UK land and have a huge role to play in supporting environmental recovery. But they need more support. We want to see the nature and climate-friendly farming budget doubled.”
Conservatives – Want to maintain the existing approach to Environmental Land Management. Additional funding would be directed at food production.
Green Party – Propose to triple the support given to farmers for nature friendly farming over the 5 year parliament
Labour – A land-use framework making environmental land management schemes work for farmers and nature.
Liberal Democrats – Add an additional £1bn of funding for the Environmental Land Management Scheme.
Reform UK – Would increase the farming budget but scrap any funding linked to climate.
“Big businesses; from water, to retail, to energy, all further environmental decline. We want new rules to make them contribute to nature and climate recovery, and an end to new fossil fuels.”
Conservatives – Will work with the existing regulator to hold companies to account.
Green Party – Propose a carbon tax proportional to the greenhouse gas emissions when fuel is burnt. They want nature-based solutions to prevent flooding and storm overflows and an end of privatisation of water companies, with profits being invested in infrastructure.
Labour – Propose to strengthen regulators powers to fine and block bonuses for water companies who persistently cause pollution.
Liberal Democrats – Replace OfWat with a new regulator to prevent sewage dumps. Pass a Clean Air act based on WHO guidelines and enforce it with a new Air Quality Agency. They also want to introduce a “general duty of care for the environment” for businesses.
Reform UK – Have no policies in this area
“Just 3% of English land and 8% of waters are properly protected for nature and wildlife. To meet UK nature and climate commitments we need to expand and improve protected areas, and ensure public land and National Parks contribute more to recovery.”
Conservatives – Will designate an 11th National Park and deliver tree planting and peatland restoration through Nature for Climate Funding.
Green Party – Pledge to give 30% of land, sea and domestic waterways back to nature by 2030
Labour – Will create nine new National River Walks, one in each region of England, and three new National Forests. They will expand nature-rich habitats such as wet lands, peat bogs and forests.
Liberal Democrats – Will double the size of the protected area network by 2050 and plant 60 million trees a year.
Reform UK – Propose to protect the environment with more tree planting
“Limited access to nature, and pollution in the air and water, affects everyone’s health. We’re calling for an Environmental Rights Bill which would drive better decisions for nature, improve public health and access to nature.”
Conservatives – Will work with landowners to open up more access, but commit to no universal right to roam
Green Party – Will create a Commission on Animal Protection, establish a Right to Roam act in England to mirror that in Scotland, and state everyone should live within 15 minute walk of a nature rich greenspace. They would pass a “Rights of Nature” act, giving the natural world legal personhood and offering it protection from exploitation for financial gain.
Labour – Will improve access to nature, promote biodiversity and protect our landscapes and wildlife. They have also confirmed they will meet the Environment Act targets.
Liberal Democrats – Will pass a new Environmental Rights Act recognising everyone’s human right to a healthy environment, and significantly increase the amount of accessible green space and exploring a right to roam for waterways.
“We cannot save nature without solving the climate crisis. We want investment in warm homes and lower bills by increasing home energy efficiency, supporting active travel and public transport, and replacing polluting fossil fuels with affordable renewables to ensure we at least halve UK emissions by 2030.”
Conservatives – Remain committed to Net Zero in 2050, but with an agreement for new exploration licences for North Sea Oil and Gas. They pledge more investment in renewables, but will also launch two new gas fired power stations.
Green Party – Will push for Net Zero by 2040, with a decarbonised energy system by 2030, investment of £40bn per year for 5 years across energy, transport , infrastructure and building retrofit.
Labour – A warm homes plan to improve energy efficiency through grants and loans and a National Wealth Fund for industrial decarbonisation. They will launch a new body called Great British Energy with £8.3bn over the parliament to support grid decarbonisation by 2030.
Liberal Democrats – Commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045 and have a 10 year programme for home upgrades, including insulation and heat pumps. They aim for 90% of the grid energy to be renewable derived by 2030
Reform UK – Would abandon Net Zero targets, increase North sea oil and gas production and shale gas licences.
This is a whistlestop tour of some of the headlines and we encourage you to delve into the manifestos to get more of the detail, but it is clear from this summary that there are significant differences in approach between the parties. We’ll see if or how they respond after the demonstrations on Saturday.
Last week saw all the major parties launch their manifestos to much fanfare and self-congratulatory flag waving. Yet despite the current election taking place during a climate crisis, there seems to be a complete lack of real climate leadership. That was until the Green party released its manifesto.
It might not be perfect, but the Green party’s manifesto could have found the formula for the type of strong climate leadership that the majority of British people want to see.
Richard Sulley, Senior Research Fellow in Sustainability Policy at the Grantham Centre, wrote an insightful article for The Conversation picking out the key policies and themes within the manifesto. Read the extract below:
“The Green party’s target is to take four seats at the upcoming UK election. Recognising it has no chance of forming a government, its manifesto is written from the perspective of a future pressure group within Westminster.
In doing so, the party highlights some key ideas and steps that could help the UK achieve meaningful climate action. This provides a refreshing attempt to outline an alternative way forward, at a time when climate leadership is severely lacking from other parties.”
You can read the full article here.
This week has seen the campaigns starting in earnest. The first skirmishes have taken place and we witnessed the first live TV election debate. Our Green Watch team has been keeping a close eye on all the environmental and sustainability topics being discussed.
Reform UK has launched their version of a Manifesto, which they call a ‘Contract‘. It contains an Energy and Environment Section which many outlets were quick to fact check the claims made within it.
There is so little serious policy within the document that was difficult for our Green Watch team to know where to start. So instead we decided to look at the deliverability of plans, projects and ideas. The Reform UK Contract starts from a position of anthropogenic climate change denial. It mixes in some discussion of the requirement of CO2 for plants to live and finishes with a comparison of the emissions of the UK and China.
Reform UK’s policy statements are all concerned with abolishing the programme of Net Zero infrastructure projects and subsidies for the energy transition. It claims that an expansion in North Sea Gas and Oil will deliver energy security and lower bills. Adoption of these would require abandoning commitments made in law under the climate change act. It would mean abandoning the UK’s signature to international treaties. It would also prevent the UK from taking advantage of the lower costs and oil price independence that renewable energy can bring.
The latest Britain Talks Climate report, published by Climate Outreach, actually showed that the UK population is much more committed to climate action than the current political discourse suggests. It highlights that people are looking for strong leadership in this space from our politicians.
This brings us to the first leadership debate of this general election. On Tuesday 4th June, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer went head-to-head on ITV’s live election debate. Amongst the questions about the cost of living, immigration and housing, the following question was posed…
“The world is facing a climate catastrophe now both of you have broken promises on the environment. What are you doing to put climate at the very centre of your policies?”
With only 45 seconds to respond, we should maybe not be surprised that the responses were not detailed. Both leaders focused almost solely on energy. The debate mirrored earlier disagreements on the possible costs of a transition to a net zero energy system. The clash centred around which party would compel change and which would not.
Interestingly analysis undertaken by Aurora Energy Research suggests that the most expensive option for consumers would be to remain on our existing decarbonisation pathway. More ambitious targets would actually produce reduced costs.
On our current pathway, we expect total consumer costs to be £112/MWh (average annual costs, 2025-50). In a 2035 net zero scenario, costs would be 2% lower (£109/MWh). In a 2030 net zero scenario, the costs would be 4% lower (£107/MWh).
As discussed in our previous blog, we are looking for the parties to expand their conversation on Net-Zero, climate, nature and environmental issues. They need to understand that this isn’t simply about the cost of replacing fossil fuels with renewables. It isn’t simply the electrification of our existing industrial process, heating systems and transport. Sustainability must encompass all these things while simultaneously addressing economic and societal inequalities.
We may have to wait for the manifestos to be published in full to see if our hopes are met.
This week we asked our Green Watch team to list the key sustainability issues they want to see addressed by the next Government:
We would like to see a recommitment to the UKs moral and legal obligations to reduce emissions inline with the Paris Agreement. We need to see a coherent plan to deliver on the requirements of the Climate Change Act. This needs to involve mechanisms for more stringent sectoral and geographical budgets and targets.
There needs to be a focus on building a resilient skills, supply chain, investment and engagement ecosystem to improve the energy efficiency and decarbonisation of the UKs housing stock across all tenures.
We would welcome a joined up industrial strategy that helps large energy consumers to deliver the reductions necessary. This has to be focussed on proven technologies. We also recognise the need for incentives around the reuse of industrial heat through the use of district heating networks.
Debate is currently turning to the costs of “Net Zero” and focussing on possible impacts on consumers bills. Instead we would like to see an honest conversation about the benefits that decarbonising infrastructure will bring; from increased resilience to decoupling energy costs from volatile global markets. We’d also welcome an acknowledgement that the costs of adaptation will likely to be far less than the costs of the unchecked impacts of climate change on our society as a result of a ‘do nothing’ approach.
The UK’s reliance on private vehicles drives carbon emission, poor air quality, road injuries and deaths as well as transport poverty. We hope to see plans for affordable, reliable and accessible public transport systems as well as more enabling of active travel.
We would welcome an incoming Government taking seriously the need for refill and reuse as well as recycling. These should be core components of any proposed deposit return scheme or shakeup of kerbside recycling. Our Many Happy Returns research team have done extensive research on reusable packaging systems to reduce single-use plastics.
Some of the best opportunities for climate adaptation lie in nature based solutions. These solutions can be combined with restoration of ecosystems.
Recent reports have again highlighted that a small segment of the UK population are responsible for a significant proportion of emissions, particularly in sectors like aviation and transport. The next Government will need to tackle this through taxation mechanisms such as frequent flyer levies.
We would like to see a recognition that the impacts of air pollution, climate change, are not experienced equally across regions, communities and people. The solutions offered need to recognise this.
Standard models of economic growth are not compatible with the need to reduce consumption of resources and energy and to address societal inequalities. We are hopeful that the parties will be willing to look at alternative models and metrics for success.
How we work with communities is critical to the success of the systemic changes we need to create a thriving and sustainable country. We are looking to the Government to see how it will do this. We must ensure there is clear messaging around the need for change, highlighting its benefits and how it can be co-designed.