UK Labour Party Launches Green Manifesto
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, Labour’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, today launched Labour’s Green Manifesto at a young people’s mobilisation event in London.
The Green Manifesto shows how Labour would show greater boldness on shifting the UK on to a low carbon path and how Labour will apply its values of fairness and opportunity to the challenge of climate change. The manifesto offers a ten-point plan for tackling the climate change and environmental challenges we face. It also specifies new policies that will help protect the consumer and help some of the poorest adjust to the low carbon transition.
Ed Miliband said:
“The first-time voters of today will be the ones who will live with the consequences of all of our decisions for years to come. Tackling climate change isn’t just about avoiding disaster but also ensuring we have a prosperous future and a fair one. That’s why I am proud of Labour’s Green manifesto. It embodies our values, creating jobs for young people, protecting the vulnerable, standing up for the many an d enshrining our commitment to fairness now and in the future.”
In this election Britain faces a fundamental environmental choice. Under Labour this country is on the road to creating hundreds of thousands of new green jobs in a high-tech, low-carbon economy.
We have embarked on a revolution in clean energy: by 2020 around 40 per cent of our electricity will come from low carbon sources.
We are committed to giving consumers a wider choice of energy supplier and to create statutory rights for consumers.
We will help to protect the poorest and most vulnerable customers from the impact of price increases. We will maintain our leadership in the EU to push for a greener Europe, and globally for a legally binding international climate agreement.
We are committed not just to protecting but to enhancing our precious landscapes and biodiversity. We will continue to direct new housing onto brownfield land. And we will maintain our proud record on improving animal welfare, including the ban on fox hunting. All this would be put at risk by a Conservative Government.
Although the Tories have tried to improve their environmental image, their policies would jeopardise our low carbon targets and our energy security, and a deep well of opposition to action on climate change has emerged in their party.
The Liberal Democrats, too, are opposed to key elements of a low carbon future. Labour is committed to work for a greener Britain and a greener world. In this manifesto we set out our vision and programme.
Labour’s green programme
A Labour Government will:
1. Build a low carbon energy system:
• Around 40 per cent low carbon electricity by 2020.
• 15 per cent renewable energy by 2020, including local heat and power.
• No new coal without carbon capture and storage (CCS) and four
CCS plants.
• Drive up energy efficiency, including through a smart grid.
• Reform energy market to provide greater certainty for investors.
2. Drive down emissions from all forms of transport:
• Cut transport emissions by 14 per cent by 2020.
• New high speed rail link and electrification of major routes.
• Support for buses, cycling and walking.
• A new ‘national grid’ of charging points for electric cars and help for consumers
to buy them.
• Force down pollution from planes.
3. Create jobs in the green economy:
• £2 billion Green Investment Bank for low carbon infrastructure.
• Support low carbon businesses through £4 billion UK Finance for Growth.
• Create 5,000 apprenticeships in low carbon sectors.
• Create Low Carbon Economic Areas to provide industrial support in every
region.
4. Give consumers a fair deal:
• Open up the energy market to new suppliers.
• Introduce a statutory code of consumer rights.
• Clearer energy bills including information on cheapest tariffs.
• Strengthen role of consumers in water pricing.
Our vision and values
Labour’s green programme is driven by our vision and values. Our vision is of a green economy – in Britain, and globally – which improves people’s quality of life and lifts people out of poverty through the sustainable use and careful stewardship of natural resources.
It is of a green society – in Britain, and globally – which values nature in all its ecological and cultural richness, and which enables everyone to enjoy its benefits.
Read the entire Manifesto here: http://www2.labour.org.uk/uploads/e156ae70-8c1e-4394-d1b6-c2a39bf3f4d8.pdf
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