Contraction & Convergence | CO2 reduction | Carbon quotas | Green taxation | Ban on fossil fuel | Nuclear Power
| Energy | transport | farming | animal welfare | wildlife & landscape | international | Planning & building |

Environmental policy comparison

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Election campaign emphasis on environmental issues

Green Party: 3    Blue Environment Party: 10    Labour Party: 3    Liberal Democrats: 5   (1=low 10=high)

Contraction and Convergence

Green party

Support international C&C. The idea of C& C is that a world quota for carbon use is agreed. Everyone in the world will end up using the same amount of CO2 per head, so people in rich countries will cut back a lot, and people in the developing world may use a bit more.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

Against C&C.

Conservative party

No stated policy

Labour party

No stated policy

Liberal Democrats

Agree with C&C

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CO2 reduction targets

Green party

To comply with C&C and to avoid warming exceeding 2°C the UK needs to reduce CO2 emissions 10% annually from now. The plan is to get down to just 10% of 1990 levels by 2030.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We would recommend reducing emissions even faster, regardless of C&C. We believe our proposals will be more effective in achieving the reduction and will make us wealthier at the same time.

Conservative party

20% by 2050

Labour party

66% by 2020; 20 by 2050

Liberal Democrats

• 40% by 2020
• Zero-carbon by 2050
• Limit global temp increase to below 1.7°C.
• Commit to 10:10 campaign.

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Carbon quotas

Green party

• Set an annual carbon budget for the UK. Then fix a number of ‘carbon units’ for the country. 50% of the units allocated as a carbon ration to every person in Britain. The other 50% sold openly to anyone. The carbon budget decreases each year.
• To buy fossil fuels (or plane or train tickets) you must use part of your ration. Other goods will automatically include the cost of the carbon ration that the manufacturer/ distributor has had to buy.
• The carbon ration will be freely tradable, which will be a boon to people who use less than their ration.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We believe a revised carbon tax system (see policies) is more effective than carbon rationing.

Conservative party

No stated policy

Labour party

No stated policy

Liberal Democrats

No stated policy

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Green taxation

Green party

• Discourage fossil fuels by bringing back the 8% annual fuel duty real escalator.
• Tax waste heat from power stations and develop heat distribution networks.
• Purchase tax on new cars, dependent on emissions.
• Introduce road user tolls for heavy lorries
• Tax aviation to reflect environmental cost. Currently avgas is tax free and there is no VAT on tickets or planes. This is a £10bn subsidy to the industry, just in the UK.
• Congestion charging ‘if necessary’

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

Phase out income tax, corporation tax and VAT, and replace with taxes on carbon at source, with safeguards for those on low incomes or in special circumstances.

Conservative party

• Increase green tax, decrease normal tax
• Use incentives and market signals

Labour party

No green tax policy beyond existing plane, car and fuel tax structures

Liberal Democrats

• Road pricing in second parliament (other car taxes abolished at same time)
• Reorganise air tax to be per plane not per passenger, to capture freight and encourage full planes
• Higher air tax on internal flights where there is an easy alternative.

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Future ban on fossil fuel use

Green party

No stated policy

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

A complete ban on emitting warming gases to take effect in 20 years.

Conservative party

No stated policy

Labour party

No stated policy

Liberal Democrats

No stated policy

Nuclear

Green party

Anti nuclear

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

Pro nuclear

Conservative party

Pro nuclear

Labour party

Pro nuclear

Liberal Democrats

Anti new nuclear

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Energy

Green party

• First remove demand; then reduce it; then switch to renewables for the rest.
• Introduce carbon quotas.
• £20bn investment in renewable generation and the grid, creating 80,000 jobs.
• All major development plans must contribute to carbon reduction targets.
• Half of our energy from renewables by 2020, and zero emissions from generation by 2030.
• Phase out nuclear power. Ban new coal power stations.
• Increase use of bio-gas from agricultural and sewage waste, and build digestion plants.
• Oppose large-scale cultivation of bio-fuels
• Introduce planning support for renewables, including micro schemes as ‘permitted development’.
• Nationalise the grid and gas mains and adapt them for renewable energy.
• Introduce smart meters and appliances.
• Develop feed-in tariffs to encourage renewable electricity
• Support European initiatives such as an under-sea grid, high-voltage DC power lines and solar power plants in southern Europe and the North African deserts.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We basically agree with the Green Party on this, except: • Our tax system will render the fuel duty escalator obsolete
• We disagree with quotas
• We will not have to exercise control through the planning system as no one will ever want to build developments that will cost them a fortune in future fossil fuel taxes.
• We support nuclear power very strongly
• We believe some bio-fuels are acceptable (though many are not)
• We would not necessarily nationalise the grids (though we have to make sure they are fit for purpose).
In general our taxation approach will achieve automatically what the Green Party wants to do with multiple regulations.

Conservative party

• Green Investment Bank
• Green ISAs
• Reform Climate Change Levy to provide floor price for carbon
• Green Deal – every home to have up to £6,500 loan, repaid via savings on bills
• Unfunded commitment to smart grid
• Create four carbon capture and storage coal plants
• Deliver offshore grid
• Promote district heating
• Community hosts of renewable energy can keep extra business rate generated for six years
• Incentives for small-scale power generation
• Improve appliance efficiency

Labour party

• £500m to encourage clean tech investment.
• Warm Front grants for insulation.
• Require energy companies to insulate 6m homes 2008-12. All lofts/cavity walls done by 2015. • ¾ British homes to get ‘green upgrade’.
• All homes to have smart meter by 2020.
• Feed-In Tariffs for ‘clean energy cashback’.
• By 2020: 15% energy from renewables, and 40% of electricity low carbon.
• Smart grid to manage demand and supply.
• Up to £120m for offshore wind.
• £60m for ports to support offshore wind turbines.
• Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
• Ban on new coal-fired power stations unless they fit at least partial CCS. Once proven, retro-fit all old plants.
• Green Investment Bank for green transport and sustainable energy, especially offshore wind .

Liberal Democrats

• 10-year home insulation programme. Loan up to £10,000 per home, paid from future cost savings.
• Improve building regs
• 40% of electricity clean by 2020, 100% by 2050, at least 3/4 to come from marine and offshore.
• Promote renewable heat.
• Make smart, better grid with easy renewable hook-up.
• Back European Supergrid.
• £400m for shipyards to make offshore wind turbines and other marine kit.
• 1 year only: £400 for double glazing, new boiler or micro-generation. If micro-generation, then preferential feed-in tariff.
• Energy efficiency loans to schools. Repaid from savings, creating a rolling fund.
• £140m bus scrappage scheme.
• No new coal unless accompanied by CCS.
• No new nuclear (more expensive than efficiency and renewable energy.)
• Require companies to set carbon reduction targets.
• 30% energy efficiency improvement by 2020
• Require better durability in products and less packaging.

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Transport

Green party

Prioritise transport modes according to the following hierarchy (new investment would create 160,000 new jobs):
(1) Walking and cycling (2) Public transport and rail freight (3) Cars (4) HGVs (5) Flying

To encourage walking and cycling:
• Reduce speed limits (20mph in built-up areas).
• Make streets safe. Plan mixed-use developments connected by pavements and cycleways.
• 55mph limit on motorways and trunk roads; 40mph on rural roads.
• Designate Home Zones, Safe Routes to School; pedestrianisation.
• 10% of transport spending to support walking and cycling.
• Invest £30bn earmarked for road-building on public transport.
• Spend £1.5bn p.a. to provide cheaper, accessible local transport. Invest in buses and subsidised routes.
• Re-regulate the bus services.
• Assist businesses to make green workplace travel plans.
• Higher priority for rail, and plan for a growing rail network.
• Open additional stations on existing routes.
• Invest in new Light Rapid Transit systems (using appropriate technologies).
• Simplify fares, with discounts for off-peak journeys and people on low incomes.
• Support free local transport for pensioners.
• Return rail, tube and other light rail systems to public ownership.
• Support a new north–south high-speed line to reduce domestic short-haul flights.

Motoring cost to reflect cost to society:
• [See car tax above]
• Prioritise public transport, then if necessary introduce congestion charging.
• Reduce heavy freight and shift from road to rail:
• Reduce demand for freight by localising the economy.
• Expand the rail freight network, make greater use of waterways.
• Safeguard land adjacent to railways for use in freight distribution projects.
• Introduce road user tolls for heavy lorries.

Reduce air travel:
• [See air tax above]
• Stop airport expansion and shift journeys to the rail (45% of all air trips in the EU are under 500km).
• Ban night flying.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We basically agree with the Green Party on this, except:
• Motorway and trunk road speed limits are too low.
• It may not be necessary to re-regulate buses (though they should be more integrated).
• Question the need for public ownership of rail etc.
• On cars, if we have a carbon tax system we would not need a specific purchase tax on cars as well.
• Localising the economy may be impractical, though it sounds nice.
Again, our taxation approach will achieve automatically what the Green Party wants to do with multiple regulations and initiatives.

Conservative party

Air
• No new runways at Heathrow; Stansted and Gatwick.
• Reform air tax to boost fuller/cleaner planes.
Rail
• High-speed rail linking London, Heathrow, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds.
• Longer, flexible franchises to boost investment.
• Support Crossrail and electrify GWR South Wales line.
• Reform Network Rail.
• Stop building on disused rail lines.
Road
• Lorry road user charge, so foreign lorries pay tax.
• Fair Fuel Stabiliser.
• National electric car charging network.
Public transport
• Carbon Reduction Fund to replace new congestion charging zones
• Promote walking, cycling, bus and teleworking (boost fast broadband).
• Give cyclists greater priority.
• Encourage partnerships between bus operators and councils.
• Promote low-carbon projects in cost-benefit appraisals.

Labour party

Air
• Support Heathrow 3rd runway, but no others in the south-east in the next Parliament.
Rail
• High-speed rail, first link: London, Birmingham, Manchester, East Midlands, Sheffield, Leeds, later North and Scotland.
• Improve London commuter services, electrifying lines e.g. GWR to South Wales.
• Complete Crossrail.
• Right to cheapest fare to encourage switch to rail.
• 3x number of secure cycle-storage spaces at rail stations.
• Support not-for-profit rail franchises.
Road
• Provide 100,000 electric car charging points in five years.

Liberal Democrats

• Cut roads budget – invest in rail
• Rail fares to lag inflation 1% pa.
• UK Infrastructure Bank.
• Give local people real say over bus routes/fares via local councils.
• Promote safer cycling and walking in local transport plans.
• Reorganise air tax to be per plane, not per passenger to capture freight, and encourage full planes.
• Higher air tax on internal flights where there is an easy alternative.
• Cancel plans for 3rd runway at Heathrow and expansion of other airports in the south-east.
• Introduce road pricing in 2nd parliament. Then abolish other car taxes.
• Cheaper fuel in remote areas.

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Farming and food production

Green party

• Localise food. Boost small farms, farmers’ markets, box schemes and locally owned co-ops.
• Convert minimum of 10% of UK food production to organic every five years.
• Replace CAP with support for smaller organic farms, local markets, and biodiversity.
• Replace Fisheries Policy with policies that protect our oceans. Resource the Marine & Coastal Access Act.
• Support GM-free zones and a complete ban on EU genetically modified food.
• Reduce the impact of our meat and dairy consumption. Traditional grazing can store carbon in the soil.
• Involve children in growing, preparing and cooking food.

Reduce the dominance of supermarkets by:
• enforcing monopoly legislation;
• introducing an ombudsman to protect farmers from bullying;
• prohibiting new out-of-town retailing, and requiring parking charges;
• Ensuring 50% of floor space in new developments is reserved local small businesses;
• enabling planning authorities to give priority to local firms and farms;
• prohibiting new private retail parking in large developments, apart from disabled; and
• providing more allotments. Councils to designate new allotments in perpetuity.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We basically agree with the Green Party on this, except:
• We are not against intelligent and careful use of GM science.
• We would try to use market mechanisms rather than regulation.

Conservative party

• Restrictions on GM until assessed as safe
• Negotiate reform of CAP to favour sustainability
• Controlled badger cull
• Introduce honesty in food labelling
• Fight for reform of Common Fisheries Policy, including Marine Conservation Zones

Labour party

• Reform CAP to make better for farmer and consumer.
Supermarket Ombudsman to protect farmers and consumers.
• Better labelling of food, including origin.
• Press for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.

Liberal Democrats

• Create a Supermarket Code and independent regulator of Britain’s food market.
• Clearer labelling to help consumers choose foods with the least environmental impact.
• Work with the EU so country-of-origin labels identify true origin, not where they are packaged.
• Government action to expand the market for sustainable and fair-traded products.
• Reform CAP, focusing on conservation, food security, climate change, organic farming.

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Animal welfare

Green party

• Boost animal welfare
• Ban seal imports
• Maintain ban on hunting with dogs
• Ban animal testing
• Limit journey times for animal transport
• Ban battery chickens
• Protect Biodiveristy. Always adopt precautionary principle when examining new technologies
• Regulate pet trade.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We basically agree with the Green Party on this, except: • We are not against hunting per se • While we are not keen on animal testing, it may however be necessary in some cases. It should be done as humanely as possible, and only for important drugs etc, and only if no suitable alternatives are available.

Conservative party

• Animal welfare measures
• Whaling ban
• Endangered species trade ban

Labour party

• Animal welfare. Banned fox hunting and hare coursing, toughened sanctions on cruelty, banned testing of cosmetics, barren cages for chickens.
• Protect species including bluefin tuna

Liberal Democrats

• Merge existing quangos into Animal Protection Commission
• End testing of household products on animals.
• Work for the proper enforcement of regulations for transport of animals across EU.

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Wildlife, open spaces and landscape

Green party

Protect wildlife, landscape and diversity, begin to roll back two centuries of exploitation:
• Promote conservation, reform CAP and planning to restore heaths, woods, marsh etc.
• Reduce pesticides and introduce ‘buffer zones’ around sprayed fields
• Oppose Planning Commission re new roads, runways, incinerators and housing developments.
• Ensure sustainable development, not just economic development, is at the heart of the planning system.
• Extend the land covered by the EU Habitats Directive, and ensure protected sites are in good condition.
• Set up an Environmental Protection Commission to promote public health/environmental protection.
• Crack down on illegal trade in ivory etc, and oppose all forms of commercial and ‘scientific’ whaling.
• Increase the tranquillity of urban environments, less litter, noise, light pollution and more green spaces.
• Everyone should live within walking distance of natural green space.

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

We basically agree with the Green Party on this, though we might have different policy approaches and priorities.

Conservative party

• Support AONBs, National Parks and more woodland
• Prevent building in flood plain
• Tighten controls on illegally harvested timber
• Restrict development on fertile farm land

Labour party

• Countryside & Rights of Way (Right to roam) and Marine & Coastal Access Acts, New Forest and South Downs National Forest new national parks
• £3.9bn in the next Rural Development Programme for good agricultural stewardship schemes
• Exceeded target of 60% of new development on brownfields and extended Green Belt
• Green corridors and wildlife networks to link up existing sites. Increase forest and woodland.
• Air, rivers and beaches are now the cleanest – will do better.
• More on flood defences.

Liberal Democrats

• Increase right of access to countryside, as per Scotland.
• Restore UK habitats and biodiversity by 2020.
• National Parks boards to be elected.
• Protect special community green spaces, by new SSSI type status
• Double woodland cover by 2050.
• Protect world’s forests. Zero net deforestation by 2020; anti deforestation payments to LDCs; illegal to import/possess illegal timber.
• International labelling standards for products’ environmental impact.

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International

Green party

[Inherent in policies]

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

[Inherent in policies]

Conservative party

Press for EU money to prevent 3rd world deforestation

Labour party

• Pressing EU to raising appliance energy efficiency. High-energy light bulbs out by 2012.
• £1.5bn climate assistance to LDCs 2010-2012. From 2013 some climate assistance is extra to aid budget.
• Press for EU ban on illegal logging (ban domestically if fails)

Liberal Democrats

• Over 60% of world ecosystems now over-exploited. Global institutions needed.
• Press EU and world to ensure emissions peak before 2015.
Press the EU to:
• Target 30% reduction by 2020, long-term targets and policies for clean energy, efficiency; and innovation.
• Tighten emissions trading scheme.
• Lead diplomatic/ international efforts for transfer of clean tech to LDCs.
• Reduce HFCs
• Support UN funds for LDCs from emissions markets (e.g. aviation and shipping).
• Work through the EU for zero emissions for new cars by 2040 and extend targets to other vehicles.
Work to:
• Make World Bank, IMF and WTO etc more eco-savvy
• Increase UNEP funding
• Better enforcement of international treaties

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Planning and building

Green party

No stated policy other than on housing

BLUE ENVIRONMENT PARTY

Agree broadly with Libral Democrat planning policies

Conservative party

• Create presumption in favour of sustainable development.
• Replace IPC with democratic system with fast-track for major infrastructure.
• Use private/hybrid Bills to promote major projects;
• Other major inquiries to have binding timetables, focus on planning issues, and final permission given by a Minister.
• Introduce new ‘open source’ planning system.
• People to specify development they want in their neighbourhood.
• Neighbourhood plans consolidated into local plan.
• Abolish regional planning and building targets.
• Developers to pay LA for loss of amenity and costs of additional infrastructure (these replace existing levies)
• Some money paid to neighbourhood to incentivise them to accept development.
• Major local development to be designed via collaborative process.
• Faster approvals process for planning applications with no objections.
• National planning framework to set out national level economic and environmental priorities.
• Abolish planning inspectors’ powers to rewrite local plans;
• Amend ‘Use Classes Order’ to allow buildings to be used for anything permitted by local plan
• Limit appeals against local planning decisions to cases that involve abuse of process or failure to apply the plan;
• encourage county councils and unitary authorities to make infrastructure plans;
• Make planning and other public authorities co-operate
• Allow neighbourhoods to stop ‘garden grabbing’.

Labour party

No significant changes beyond what has already been done to speed up planning for major infrastructure projects.

Liberal Democrats

• Abolish Infrastructure Planning Commission. Return decisions, including housing targets, to locals.
• Create right of appeal if decisions go against locals.
• Equalise VAT on new build and repair.
• Designate gardens as ‘greenfield’ to stop developers.

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