10 December 2020

• Molly Scott Cato: “With car plants closing, supermarkets stockpiling, and businesses unable to prepare for an unknown future the government is creating a totally unnecessary emergency”

Responding to the bleak news emerging from Brussels last night, former MEP and Green Party Brexit speaker Molly Scott Cato said:

“The UK government have totally misjudged this negotiation, preferring to believe their fantasies about sovereignty and Global Britain rather than understanding their partner’s negotiating position and seeking common ground.

“With car plants closing, supermarkets stockpiling, and businesses unable to prepare for an unknown future the government is creating a totally unnecessary emergency. It was their decision to refuse an extension period even in the face of the Covid pandemic, an ideologically motivated misjudgment of historic proportions.

“Many people voted for Brexit in the belief that things would only improve for them. But from 1st January those traveling to the EU will face the prohibitive cost of travel insurance for those with chronic health conditions, the need for a new driving licence and green card for drivers, and complication and expense if taking dogs, cats or other animals with them. 

“These are all issues we raised during the referendum campaign more than four years ago and that Vote Leave campaigners who are now ministers dismissed as Project Fear.’

“In the middle of two desperate and unavoidable crises – Covid and climate – the Tories are creating a third that is entirely avoidable and failing at the most basic requirement of government: to ensure safety and security for their citizens.”

The Green Party’s position remains that we should seek to remain members of the EU single market and customs union, providing the best environment for business and continuing free movement for citizens.

ENDS

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10 December 2020

Satnam Deuchakar, international policy officer for Greens of Colour, said:  

“The Green Party of England and Wales fights for social and climate justice.  We support the farmers in India who are resisting market-driven legal changes that will destroy their livelihoods. And we defend their fundamental right to peaceful protest as the cornerstone of any functioning democracy. 

“The images emerging of the use of water cannons and tear gas against an unarmed group of citizens are deeply concerning. This action goes against the fundamental right to peaceful protest as enshrined in Articles 9 to 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the 1966 International Convention on Civil and Political  Rights.

“Farmers are the backbone of the Indian economy and are protesting peacefully against the mass privatization of the agricultural sector and unjust and damaging changes to farming laws. We urge the Indian government to return to the negotiating table and to seek peaceful measures to resolve the situation. 

“The Green Party of England and Wales stands in solidarity with the Indian farmers.”

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9 December 2020

• Jonathan Bartley: “This plan would take some of the radical, but absolutely necessary, steps the UK needs to make to play its part in ensuring the world stays within the 1.5C warming limit it agreed to five years ago”

The Green Party has set out a climate programme of real ambition as the UK government continues to fail to deliver on its promises ahead of the five year anniversary of the Paris Agreement.[1]

While the UK remains nowhere near achieving the targets it signed up to at the historic UN climate summit in Paris in 2015, the Greens have set out  ten priority policies to match the scale and urgency of the climate crisis. [2]

Green Party leader Jonathan Bartley said:

“This is what real climate ambition looks like.

“The Conservative government has failed to propose a detailed plan so we are putting forward what should be included in a climate plan of real ambition.

“The government has had five years to make good on the promises it made in Paris. It has so far done next to nothing.

“This plan would take some of the radical, but absolutely necessary, steps the UK needs to make to play its part in ensuring the world stays within the 1.5C warming limit it agreed to five years ago.”

The plan includes:

• A carbon tax of £100 per tonne of carbon dioxide rising to £500 by 2030
• Develop offshore and onshore wind to provide at least 100 GW of electricity by 2030. This should provide around 70% of the UK’s electricity demand by this time
• Government investment to improve the insulation of every home that needs it and provide major heating upgrades and the highest standard of energy efficiency for one million homes a year.
• Stop all airport expansion, apply carbon tax to aviation fuel and introduce a Frequent Flyer Levy as part of a drive to reduce air miles by 70% by 2030.
• Cancel the hugely carbon intensive road-building programme including the A303 at Stonehenge and the Lower Thames Crossing, take all fossil fuel cars and vans off the road by 2030 and invest in public transport, active travel and support for disabled people to reduce car miles by 50% by 2030
• Increase land for forests and woodlands by planting 700 million trees by 2030 and encourage the restoration of peatland through new subsidies to capture carbon and protect nature

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has today published its sixth carbon budget, which sets out the volume of greenhouse gases the UK can emit between 2033 and 2037 if it is to remain on track to reach net zero by 2050. [3]

Bristol Green Party Councillor Carla Denyer, who proposed the UK’s first climate emergency motion, said:

“The government has so far failed to meet any of its targets to reach net zero by 2050 – a target which in itself may not be enough to address runaway climate change.

“Even worse, in many areas they are going in the wrong direction. We should be looking to swiftly reduce the amount of travel that is necessary by car, yet this government is going ahead with its £27 billion road building project.”

“Meanwhile, thousands of people across the country are living in fuel poverty this winter, unable to afford to heat their homes. This simply should not be happening. The Green Party’s plan to provide insulation and heat pumps would mean such inequalities would be a thing of the past.

“It is only the Green Party that is putting forward the bold and ambitious plans to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions as quickly as is feasible and provide new opportunities for everyone to live happier and more secure lives.”

ENDS

Notes

1

https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/what-is-the-paris-agreement

2

A full breakdown of the Green Party’s 10 point plan for climate is available here:

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Communications/10_Point_Climate_Plan.pdf

3

https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/

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9 December 2020

The Committee on Climate Change has today published its Sixth Carbon Budget for the years 2033 to 2037. [1]

In response to the report, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: 

“The science is indisputable and we know what the Government needs to do but so far we’ve not seen the ambitious, consistent leadership the CCC emphasises is necessary to make sure positive, feasible and affordable changes happen.   

“Instead we have a Prime Minister who talks the talk but is barely on his feet, let alone walking or running towards the better future we know is possible. And the Chancellor doesn’t even seem to have read the climate crisis memo. So we get a piecemeal 10-point climate action plan from the Prime Minister one week, which is followed up by climate inaction in the Spending Review a week later. The Treasury needs to be shaken out of its climate torpor because it is holding back the essential transition to a low-carbon future.   

“The climate emergency has to be made the top priority across the whole of government. We must take full responsibility for our overseas emissions and help others transition fast to a zero-carbon economy, rather than holding them back them by financing fossil fuel infrastructure overseas.  

“That is the climate leadership the Prime Minister frequently boasts of, but has yet to deliver.”

ENDS

Notes

1

Building back better – Raising the UK’s climate ambitions for 2035 will put Net Zero within reach and change the UK for the better

In response to the report, Caroline Lucas said: 

“The science is indisputable and we know what the Government needs to do but so far we’ve not seen the ambitious, consistent leadership the CCC emphasises is necessary to make sure positive, feasible and affordable changes happen.   

“Instead we have a Prime Minister who talks the talk but is barely on his feet, let alone walking or running towards the better future we know is possible. And the Chancellor doesn’t even seem to have read the climate crisis memo. So we get a piecemeal 10-point climate action plan from the Prime Minister one week, which is followed up by climate inaction in the Spending Review a week later. The Treasury needs to be shaken out of its climate torpor because it is holding back the essential transition to a low-carbon future.  

“The climate emergency has to be made the top priority across the whole of government. We must take full responsibility for our overseas emissions and help others transition fast to a zero-carbon economy, rather than holding them back them by financing fossil fuel infrastructure overseas.  

“That is the climate leadership the Prime Minister frequently boasts of, but has yet to deliver.”  

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6 December 2020

• Jenny Jones: “The Government is trying to bulldoze democracy by saying that capitalism and big business are more important than the will of the people”

Green Party peers have said parliament must be allowed scrutiny of post-Brexit trade deals as the government’s Trade Bill returns to the House of Lords for debate tomorrow.[1]

The Greens have also set out how the bill must include the existing strong protections for the environment, workers’ rights and food safety.

Green peer Jenny Jones said it was vital to protect democracy by ensuring parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals.

Baroness Jones said:

“The Government is trying to bulldoze democracy by saying that capitalism and big business are more important than the will of the people. 

“Unlike the US Congress and EU Parliament, whose members are heavily involved throughout the whole process of trade negotiations, the UK Government is trying to keep Parliament in the dark with very little control over the trade deals that we sign. 

“As Greens, we believe that the market and the economy should serve the people, not make us the servants. 

“That’s why we have been fighting for strong parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals, involving Parliament in setting negotiating mandates, and culminating in each deal being put to a meaningful vote in parliament.”

Green peer Natalie Bennett warned it was vital the bill included strong protections for people and planet.

Baroness Bennett said:

“Too often, trade deals are used to undermine the important protections for the environment, workers’ rights and food safety. 

“That is why we have been fighting for the Trade Bill to have strong protections for people and the planet, so that we can work together with other countries to improve rather than destroy.

“But ultimately we need to work towards the kind of model being developed in New Zealand, Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway and Fiji, their proposed Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability. That is seeking to ensure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, rather than as too much of our trade does, threatening them.” [2]

ENDS

Notes

1

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2729

2

https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/free-trade-agreements/climate/agreement-on-climate-change-trade-and-sustainability-accts-negotiations/

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