Conservative plans to axe carbon taxes threaten Britain’s ‌progress to reduce greenhouse gas, which fell by 2 % in 2025 (1), according to provisional government data released today.

The Conservative move to scrap the UK Emissions Trading Scheme comes a month after the US said it would no longer regulate emissions (2). 

Green Party Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said: “Yet again, we have the Conservatives trailing after Donald Trump rather than standing up for the people of this country who desperately need big business to clean up its act.

“The Conservatives are in the pockets of the fossil fuel companies who have been lobbying hard to reverse the limited gains we have seen in recent years (3).

“We want carbon taxes strengthened to incentivise industries to move faster to the sustainable green future that will protect jobs and our environment.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. 2025 UK greenhouse gas emissions: provisional figures – statistical release – GOV.UK
2. Trump’s EPA will end the basis for federal climate actions : NPR
3. The Vested Interests Lobbying for North Sea Oil and Gas Expansion – DeSmog

Responding to Reform UK’s Housing Chief, Simon Dudley’s suggestion that post-Grenfell safety rules “have gone too far”, Green Party MP Siân Berry said,

“Reform has sunk to a new low and shown a real disrespect to the victims of Grenfell. Anyone who has any awareness of what Grenfell residents went through, in fact anyone with any empathy or humanity, will find these comments truly abhorrent.

Nigel Farage must sack Simon Dudley for this disgusting outburst.

That Reform would want to scrap key safety regulations brought in after the horrific Grenfell fires tells you everything you need to know about the party. Nearly a decade on, people living in high-rise buildings need more action, not less. Safe, warm and affordable houses are at the heart of what our communities need. Don’t trust anyone who says we cannot have that.”

The Green Party is demanding the government suspends the Israeli ambassador after Israel’s parliament approved the death penalty for Palestinians convicted for attacks deemed to be “acts of terrorism”.

Deputy Leader of the Green Party, Mothin Ali, said:

“These military courts are conducted without proper legal representation or juries. This is unconscionable – the government must immediately suspend Israel’s UK ambassador.

“Introducing the death penalty into Israel’s civil legal system, in a way that rights groups say will de facto only apply to Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, will result in Palestinians being killed without a fair trial.

“Palestinian citizens of Israel already lack certain rights granted to Israeli citizens, and their second-class status was made explicit with the passing of the 2018 Jewish Nation-State Law.

“It’s time for the Labour government to stand for truth: Israel is an apartheid state which is conducting a genocide in Gaza. Just like apartheid South Africa, it must be treated as a pariah state until the genocide is stopped, apartheid is ended, and Palestinians are granted the same rights as Israelis.

Ali repeated a call for the government to ban the sale of all weapons and weapon components to Israel:

“The government must make clear that it will not continue to sell any military weapons or weapons components to Israel. The Green Party calls for Britain to impose sanctions on Israel, as most of the world community did to South Africa, when it was also operating an apartheid state.”

Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s plans to remove VAT from household energy bills for the next three years funded by scrapping renewable energy schemes and green levies, Green MP Hannah Spencer said:

“Kemi Badenoch is not living in the same world as the rest of us – where we can see first-hand that decades of failure to properly insulate our homes and invest in renewables has left us all vulnerable to ridiculous price shocks.

“The Tories, Reform and right-wing media are deliberately failing to explain that UK oil and gas are priced on global markets, and new fields take years to deliver while adding only limited supply. Hundreds of licences issued between 2010 and 2024 have delivered the equivalent of just 36 days’ extra gas.

“Labour’s position isn’t good enough either. A “ban” on new licences doesn’t mean much if loopholes like tiebacks still allow new drilling to go ahead.

“Successive governments keep failing to listen to ordinary people who’re sick of seeing bills go up, and workers like me who have experience in this industry. We’ve been saying for years that we have the leakiest homes in Europe. It would be much cheaper to invest in a proper, well-regulated national insulation scheme than to have to keep subsidising people’s bills and pouring public money into energy company profits.

“The Green Party is clear: stop new oil and gas, close the loopholes, and invest properly in the transition to renewable energy.

“Our hard-earned wages are currently going on tax cuts for fossil fuel companies. That money should be redirected into proper support for oil and gas workers to transition into secure, skilled jobs in green industries. That’s how you cut bills, protect workers and deliver real energy security – not by propping up a declining industry.”