New Year message for 2024

30 December 2023

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“I am really looking forward to the year ahead. There is a General Election on the horizon and with it a chance to create a fairer, greener country – and get more Green MPs elected to Parliament. 

“2023 was a big year for the Green Party. Thanks to another set of record-breaking local election results in May, we now have more councillors than ever before – representing our communities with integrity and commitment.   

“We continue to be the party standing for fairness – defending our environment and our democracy while standing up for the interests of people up and down the country in local communities. 

“More and more people are telling us how much they want to come together and help build a fairer, greener country.  

“More and more people are experiencing the Green Party in action. They see that we stand for and what we achieve in their communities and in Parliament. And that means more and more people are now proudly voting Green.  

“2024 is going to be a momentous year for people and the planet. It’s time for action.” 

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Greens call for more action after COP28 deal fails to deliver change needed

13 December 2023

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer called for urgent action from the UK government to go beyond the compromise deal agreed at this year’s COP climate summit in Dubai. 

Denyer said: 

“Without sustained government action following this disappointing COP28, the world is heading for a hellish future. We need to press our ambitions with a renewed vigour. 

“The fact that UK climate change minister, Graham Stuart, returned to London to vote on the Rwanda Bill just as the hardest part of the negotiations got underway tells the world this Conservative government just doesn’t care. 

“This is the price we pay for government chaos at home – being sidelined at the most crucial moment in the COP28 negotiations.  

“COP agreed a ‘transition’ away from fossil fuels that falls far short of the fair phase out that is needed. It offers market solutions that will leave behind the poorest countries and bolster the Petro-states. 

“Despite this disappointing result, we can still achieve an outcome that avoids the worst of the climate emergency while also creating safer streets, cleaner air, warmer homes, more jobs in renewable energy and support for our farmers to produce more food locally.   

“There is a groundswell of calls for action from around the world – at least 127 countries called for or endorsed a decision to phase out fossil fuels at COP28. Now is the time for action. 

“We got some limited cash pledges to kick-start the loss and damage fund, more warm words about the 1.5°C target and a desperate compromise on fossil-fuels that protects the interests of oil producers rather than the planet. 

“We urged COP28 to achieve three vital things – the changes needed now to keep to the 1.5°C target set eight years ago in Paris; the phasing out of fossil fuels, and generous contributions to the loss and damage fund to support poorer countries through the climate crisis. 

“The UK’s £60 million contribution to the loss and damage fund is not new money, and the totals pledged from the richest countries amount to less than 0.2% of the irreversible damage poorer countries are facing from global heating each year. 

“Taken together, COP28 has not delivered nearly enough to tackle the climate crisis. That means it is all the more important to make our demand for action now clearer and louder. 

“For instance, we must make the UK government face up to the science and cancel new oil and gas licences for the North Sea.  

“It must now increase investment in onshore and offshore wind, and other forms of renewable energy, to deliver on pledges made. 

“And the government must fund local councils to deliver a nationwide programme of home and business insulation to cut energy use and lower people’s bills. 

“If the government here, and other world leaders, would engage seriously, we could be creating a much better and fairer future for people throughout the UK and around the world.  

“We can still achieve that future. The best time to act was decades ago. The next best time is right now.” 

ENDS 

 

NOTES 

The Green Party called for: 

  • Commitment from the UK government to the 1.5°C Paris Agreement and the massive scaling up of climate action that is now necessary to achieve it 

COP28 delivered: 

  • 134 countries pledged to integrate food and agriculture in their climate plans in the first COP declaration to draw a connection between climate change and the food we eat. 

The Green Party called for: 

  • The fair and managed phase-out of all fossil fuels, with the UK government leading by example by ending all new oil and gas licences and a rapid acceleration towards renewable energy. 

COP28 delivered: 

  • Petro-states and oil companies successfully lobbied to keep the phase out of fossil fuels off the table. 
  • The final text puts a heavy reliance on technologies to “abate” carbon emissions rather than deal with their source 
  • UK government spokesperson – “The UK position is clear – there must be a phase-out of unabated fossil fuels to meet our climate goals.” 

The Green Party called for: 

  • Recognition that it is a super-rich elite who are super-heating the planet, including a generous new Loss and Damage Fund to finance climate action in the poorest countries 

COP28 delivered: 

  • Countries pledged £556 million to kick-start the loss and damage fund. The UK pledged £60 million.  
  • Save the Children said while the UK money “is an important contribution to a vital fund, it is not new or additional finance, but a repackaging of existing commitments.” 
  • The Loss and Damage Collaboration NGO said the total pledge was the equivalent of less than 0.2% of the irreversible economic and non-economic losses developing countries are facing from global heating every year. 

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Green Party reaction to Rwanda plan vote: cruelty and inhumanity as a tool of public policy 

11 December 2023

As parliament prepares for important votes on government plans to enable the deportation of refugees to Rwanda [1], the Green Party has issued a clear statement that refugees should be welcomed.

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“The Green Party stands in stark opposition to the political leaders and MPs in parliament who are competing with each other to be inhumane to refugees.   

“We need a system that welcomes refugees through clear, open, safe and legal routes, that offers quick and efficient determinations and support for resettlement into local communities with properly funded local services.”  

“Instead of creating an asylum system that works, the government is deliberately making it chaotic and inaccessible to put people off using their right to seek asylum.   

“The Rwanda plans are cruelty and inhumanity being used as a tool of public policy. This cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.   

“Everyone deserves to be treated in a way that is fair and humane. This new legislation will remove fundamental legal protections designed to protect us all from the arbitrary power of the state.”  

Notes

1. Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill 2023-24 – House of Commons Library (parliament.uk)

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Green Party reacts to COP28 draft text: 1.5C on life support

11 December 2023

Reacting to the draft text issued at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai today, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

 

“We urged COP28 to achieve three vital things – the changes needed now to keep 1.5 alive; the phasing out of fossil fuels; and tackling climate inequality by making the polluter pay and ensuring generous contributions to the loss and damage fund to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries [1]. 

 

“The absence of a phase out of fossil fuels in the draft text leaves the 1.5C target on life support. Calling on nations to reduce consumption and production of fossil fuels fails to treat climate breakdown as the emergency it is and leaves the planet on course for a hellish future.  

 

“As for climate inequality, it is clear that lobbyists from the wealthy fossil fuel industry and petrostates have been driving this summit, wielding way too much power and leaving vulnerable nations, women, young people and campaigners on the sidelines.   

 

“COP28 may have failed to do enough to meet the urgent demands of the climate crisis but it has made our demands for more action now ever clearer and louder.   

 

“In the UK that means cancelling new oil and gas licences in the North Sea; it means ramping up investment in onshore and offshore wind, and other forms of renewable energy; and it means funding local councils to deliver a nationwide programme of home and business insulation to cut energy use and lower people’s bills.” 

 

Notes

 

1. Keeping 1.5 alive, phasing out fossil fuels and tackling climate inequality must be priorities for COP28 climate talks

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Rwanda plans are an affront to democracy and human rights, say Greens  

6 December 2023

Responding to the government publishing plans to disapply sections of the Human Rights Act to get around a Supreme Court ruling banning the deportation of people seeking asylum to Rwanda for processing, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“The fact that the government is going to try to use its parliamentary majority to over-ride established human rights protections is an affront to democracy. 

“We need a system that welcomes refugees through clear, open, safe and legal routes, that offers quick and efficient determinations and support for resettlement into local communities with properly funded local services.” 

“Instead of creating an asylum system that works, the government is deliberately making it chaotic and inaccessible to put people off using their right to seek asylum.  

“It is the use of cruelty and inhumanity as a tool of public policy and cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. 

“Everyone deserves to be treated in a way that is fair and humane. This new legislation will remove fundamental legal protections designed to protect us all from the arbitrary power of the state.” 

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