Only the Greens say Yes to Europe and No to Climate Chaos
- This is a comprehensive ten-year plan ambitious enough to tackle climate and ecological breakdown at the scale and speed set out by science.
- It will deliver a fast and fair transformation of our economy and society, renewing almost every aspect of life in the UK: from the way we produce and consume energy, to the way in which we grow the food we eat, and how we work, travel, and heat our homes.
- This will be a combined investment of over £100 billion a year in the Green New Deal, with an additional investment in Universal Basic Income. Through this investment, we will provide new opportunities for everyone to work and live more sustainably and more securely.
- Introduce new support and incentives to directly accelerate wind energy development, paving the way for wind to provide around 70% of the UK’s electricity by 2030.
- Introduce new support for solar, geothermal, tidal, hydro and other renewable energies to provide much of the remainder of the UK’s energy supply by 2030.
- Transform the planning system so that it works to support a massive increase in wind power and other renewable generation
- Apply a Carbon Tax on all fossil fuel imports and domestic extraction, based on greenhouse gas emissions produced when fuel is burnt. We will also apply a Carbon Tax on imported energy, based on its embedded emissions. We will raise the Carbon Tax rate progressively over a decade, rendering coal, oil and gas financially unviable as cheaper renewable energies rise up to take their place.
- Prohibit the construction of nuclear power stations. We know that nuclear is a distraction from developing renewable energy, carries an unacceptable risk for the communities living close to nuclear energy facilities, creates unmanageable quantities of radioactive waste and is inextricably linked with the production of world-destroying nuclear weapons.
- Encourage greater energy efficiency across the economy, including by providing energy efficiency training for businesses and public bodies, emphasising the need for behavioural change – we all need to value energy as we value money. Small businesses and co-ops will receive this training for free.
- Ban fracking, and other unconventional forms of fossil fuel extraction, now and forever.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use and create a total of 100,000 new homes for social rent (council homes) a year, built to the Passivhaus or equivalent This standard will see these new homes use 90% less energy for space heating than the average home, significantly reducing household bills.
- Improve the insulation of every UK home that needs more insulation by 2030. The material used for these insulation improvements will be sustainable.
- Significantly reduce heating bills by improving 1 million existing homes and other buildings a year, so that they reach the highest standard of energy efficiency (over and above the Energy Performance Certificate A rating). Homes lived in by people on low incomes will be the first to receive these major improvements and benefit from reduced heating bills. This will be a deep retrofitting of 10 million homes by 2030, on top of the insulation improvements every home that needs it will receive.
- Insulate non domestic buildings, addressing the large amounts of energy lost from offices and public buildings.
- Transform the planning system and building regulations, so that all new buildings built by private developers are built to the Passivhaus standard (or to a standard that delivers energy efficiency at an equivalent or better level). We will enable self-build development that meets the same standards.
- Change the planning system to incentivise renovation, extension and improvement of existing buildings, rather than relying on new build, to reduce the use of steel, concrete, cladding and finishes, which produce massive amounts of carbon in their manufacture. Similarly we will incentivise the use of sustainable materials.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Spending £2.5 billion a year on new cycleways and footpaths, built using sustainable materials., such as woodchips and sawdust.
- Making travelling by public transport cheaper than travelling by car, by reducing the cost of travelling by train and bus. Coach travel will also be encouraged, with new routes for electric coaches provided across the country.
- Creating a new golden age of train by opening new rail connections that remove bottlenecks, increase rail freight capacity, improve journey times and frequencies, enhance capacity in the South West, Midlands and North, and connect currently unconnected urban areas. We would also look, where possible, to re-open closed stations. These rail improvements will benefit from funding switched from the damaging HS2 scheme, which we will cancel (see ‘Ending wasteful spending’ section below for more details).
- Electrifying all railway lines that connect cities, improving punctuality.
- Creating a government-owned rolling stock company which would invest in a fleet of new electric trains to run on newly electrified lines.
- Apply a Carbon Tax on all fossil fuels, as outlined above in the ‘Green New Deal for energy’ section, which will increase the cost of petrol, diesel and shipping fuel, as well as on aviation fuel for domestic flights. Domestic flights will also lose their VAT exemption and there will be an additional surcharge on domestic aviation fuel to account for the increased warming effect of emissions release at altitude. We will lobby against the international rules that prevent action being taken to tax international aviation fuel
- Ban advertising for flights, and introduce a Frequent Flyer Levy to reduce the impact of the 15% of people who take 70% of flights. This Frequent Flyer Tax Levy will only apply to people who take more than one (return) flight a year, discouraging excessive flying.
- Stop the building of new runways and all increased road capacity, saving thousands of acres of countryside every year and protecting people from the harm of increased air pollution and traffic danger.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Bring back the UK as an internationally recognised manufacturing powerhouse with proactive, wide-scale support for the UK-based manufacturing of renewable energy infrastructure
- Invest £2 billion a year in training and skills (including new apprenticeships), to help people access the new, decent jobs created through the transition to a low carbon economy.
- Give local authorities the power to direct the newly created training and skills programmes. National government will provide the funding and democratically elected local authorities will be given the power to decide how it should be spent, to help residents’ access new jobs.
- Encourage a shift from models of ownership to usership, such as with car-sharing platforms and neighbourhood libraries for tools and equipment.
- Ban the production of single-use plastics for use in packaging and invest in research and development into alternatives to plastic. We will also extend the successful tax on plastic bags to cover plastic bottles, single-use plastics and microplastics, and extend plastic bottle deposit schemes.
- Develop and implement a reformed waste strategy where manufacturers and retailers are required to pay the full cost of recycling and disposing of the packaging they produce.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Work with farmers to refocus farm subsidies to help farmers transition to more sustainable, diverse and environmentally friendly forms of land use, including organic farming, agroforestry and mixed farming, and away from intensive livestock farming.
- Encourage the expansion and replanting of majority of hedgerows lost in the last 50 years through new subsidies, creating new environments for wildlife.
- Legislate to give farmers greater security of tenure, so that they can invest in sustainable improvements to their land, whilst ending the use of land as a tax shelter and encouraging new entrants into farming
- Create thousands of new jobs in rural areas, through the shift away from intensive farming towards smaller-scale, more people-focussed food production and land management that respects nature. We will invest in training and skills to help people develop and apply the skills needed in these new jobs.
- Plant 700 million new trees and aim for 50% of all farms to be engaged in agroforestry by 2030. We will encourage the planting of more trees in more towns and cities, including apple, nut and other crop trees than can produce food.. The new woodland, when fully grown, will store carbon, provide home-grown timber and create new wildlife-rich environments. We will support farmers to diversify their incomes through new forest management.
- Encourage urban food growing, including new community farms and allotments, through the planning system, as well as matching those with gardens and who want to grow food with those with the skills to undertake the work for communal benefit. Similarly we will encourage the creation of new green spaces wherever they can take root – from pocket parks on vacant land, to living green roofs and walls. We will also encourage urban gardeners to plan for wildlife – opting for grass and shrubs over paving in a garden can create vital new habitats for wildlife.
- Legislate for a right to food, giving everyone access to healthy, nutritious, locally grown food, including the creation of new providers to supply this food at an affordable price to schools. We will also promote children’s access to healthy food and tackle childhood obesity, including by updating the School Food Standards to reflect the latest nutritional guidance and apply to all schools, and renaming ‘Free School Meals’ the ‘School Meals Allowance’ to tackle stigma.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Phase in the introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) sufficient to cover an adult’s basic needs. UBI will be an unconditional payment, paid to all UK residents regardless of employment status.
- Replace most income-related benefits with UBI (except for the additional benefits described below). Replacing a large range of variously means-tested benefits with one unconditional payment will simplify and streamline the system.
- Ensure nobody will be worse off. The adult rate of UBI of £89 per week will result in around a 6% increase in disposable income over five years for someone in full-time work and paid the average salary. It is our firm intention to increase in particular adult rates at regular intervals during the first full parliamentary term.
- Include additional payments above the basic adult rate for some groups of people:
- Pensioners will receive a weekly payment totalling £178.
- Disabled people will receive an additional supplement to their UBI, as will lone parents and lone pensioners.
- People who were reliant on Housing Benefit before UBI was introduced will continue to receive it, so that they can cover their rent.
- Families with an income of under £50,000 per year will receive an additional supplement of £70 per week for each of their first two children and a further £50 per week for each additional child.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Replace the First Past the Post system for parliamentary elections with a fair and proportional voting system. We are champions of the Good Systems Agreement, a cross-party commitment to democratic reform brokered by the Make Votes Matter campaign group.
- Create a fully elected House of Lords. Members will be elected for a maximum of ten years with half of the house being elected every 5 years.
- Give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote and have a say on their future. We will also allow people to stand for Parliament and all other elected offices from the age of 16, offering support to elected young people so that they can combine their duties with studying. We are proud to march with the inspiring Youth Strike activists against climate chaos and know the passion and wisdom young people can inject into our policies.
- Require all political parties to report the diversity of their candidates, so that progress in selecting more women and minorities to contest Westminster and local government seats can be monitored.
- Protect the BBC, reinstate free TV licences for over-75-year-olds and tighten the rules on media ownership so no individual or company owns more than 20% of a media market.
- Back a Citizens Convention and citizens assemblies to examine further ways to strengthen democracy, including developing a written People’s Constitution and Bill of Rights, and ensure the proposals come before Parliament. This will enshrine genuine democracy at the core of our political system, making sure that ultimate power will always rest with the people.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Create a new government department to oversee the implementation of the Green New Deal, led by a Carbon Chancellor, based at number 11 Downing Street to put the just transition to a net zero economy right at the heart of government. The Carbon Chancellor will set a yearly Carbon Budget, which will drive the decarbonisation of the economy. We will create a fossil fuel free politics, with vested interests who depend on continued fossil fuel use banished from positions of influence.
- Move away from consumption and Gross Domestic Product as key measures of economic success and towards indicators that measure human and ecological wellbeing, such as work/life balance and quality of life.
- Introduce a Future Generations Act for England, modelled on the current Act for Wales, building the needs of future generations into every government decision. We will also appoint a Minister for Future Generations to represent young people at the heart of government.
- Scrap the Home Office, and end its decades-long creation of a hostile environment for Black Minority Ethnic (BME) and other minority communities. We will instead create a a Ministry for Sanctuary and a Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry for Sanctuary will be responsible for enforcing migration rules with compassion, and due regard for human rights, as well as providing recompense for those affected by the Windrush scandal. One of the Ministry of Sanctuary’s first acts will be to abolish income requirements for people wishing to come to the UK to join a loved one – no families should be separated because of how much someone earns. The Ministry of the Interior will oversee domestic security with full regard to human rights and the needs of diverse communities.
- Close down the government’s arms sales activities, including the Department for International Trade’s Defence and Security Organisation (DSO), and end all subsidies and support for the UK arms industry’s exporting of weapons and systems that fuel conflicts, violence and suffering across the world.
- Instruct all government departments to work to meet, and when possible exceed, the UK’s commitments under the Paris Agreement of 2015, which committed UN nations to combat climate chaos. The Foreign Office will be tasked with promoting the Agreement and other international agreements to tackle climate change around the world, and encouraging nations to uphold them.
- Create a legal responsibility for government to give individuals consular support, rather than it being discretionary.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Increase central government funding to councils by £10 billion a year. This funding, combined with the local council revenue raising, will enable local government to improve the frontline services they provide and which local people need and want. We will support councils to also use this funding to nurture arts and culture in their areas, keeping local museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
- Give councils access to an additional £3 billion a year Climate Adaption Fund, Bids from councils facing the greatest threat from climate chaos, and councils with the high levels of poverty, will be prioritised as money is distributed from the Fund.
- Give all councils power over bus services in their area, and over franchises for local train services.
- Give councils clearer guidance and better training on helping homeless people, including support for the Housing First approach, a widening of the grounds on which councils can offer help to people without a home, and the provision of social services once a person is housed. The extra costs of this can be met from the £10 billion yearly uplift to council funding. We will refocus council services in this area on homelessness prevention rather than crisis management, through expanding and combining multiple funding pots into a single grant distributed to councils. We would also repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824, which criminalises street homelessness and can hinder attempts to help those without a home.
- Provide an additional £4.5 billion a year to fund councils to provide free social care to people over 65 who need support in their own homes. This model has been in place in Scotland since 2001 and has helped millions of people be cared for in their own homes – it’s time to extend this right to free home care to pensioners in England (care in Wales is devolved to the National Assembly for Wales). We will also explore how this free social care at home could be extended to everyone who needs it, regardless of age.
- Find more information here in our full manifesto
- Phase in an increase in spending on foreign aid from 0.7% to 1% of our GNI, making us the third highest donor (by Gross National Income) in the world by 2021.
- Make the Climate Emergency and tackling poverty priorities for our international aid budget. We will phase out payments to richer nations and increase support for the poorest, to help countries deal with the causes and impacts of the Climate Emergency. Support will be given on the basis of need, not UK defence and trade considerations.
- Require UK corporations to abide by the environmental, labour and social laws of their own country and of the country in which they are operating – whichever are the more stringent – and advocate for other corporations to do the same.
- Support the introduction of an EU-wide carbon tariff on countries which are not reducing their carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement of 2015, to further encourage global action on the Climate Emergency.
- Create a new international ‘ecocide’ law to prosecute crime against the natural environment.
- Commit that any future trade deals will maintain and enhance environmental and food standards and workers’ rights, minimise the environmental footprint of trade, make trade terms explicitly subject to environmental and human rights commitments, and not undermine the implementation of existing or new national and international commitments (including over protections for vital global ecosystems and habitats such as the Amazon, and for indigenous people).
- Find more information here in our full manifesto