Where Environment lays in the elections?

At the beginning of the week, the parliament called for Elections. After the non-desire extension of Brexit deadline, MP’s agreed to face a new fight on the polls on December the 12th, bu where Environment lays in the elections? Happy Christmas!

Nowadays, Environment awareness is among the most concerning topics. The rise of Extinction Rebellion, the spread of Fridays for Future, and the Climate Crisis declaration by the Government are just some proofs of that.

According to the Market and Opinion Research, Ipsos MORI, Environment is on the 7th position in the ranking of concerning topics for the British people.

Becky Spencer of WWF-UK, said: “Polling shows that nature and climate crisis could be one of the key issues at this election”. He added: “more than half of people say climate change will influence the way they vote in the next general election”.

“(Public pressure) can influence the politic parties to put the environment at the heart of their manifestos”.

Actually, the political parties have not released new Manifesto, at the time of this publication, therefore it is not clear yet where Environment lais in the elections. However, many things have changed, its Manifesto from 2017 is still on its website. And The Green Bee has analysed them to see where her hive will lay.

 Conservatives

In 2018, Theresa May’s Government released the 25 years Environment Plan and the Government stuck on it. Previously it had released its Manifesto where it mentions 2050 as the deadline to be carbon-neutral.

 The prevailing party in the Government has been focusing mainly on Brexit, NHS, Security and Education.

For that, they expect to expand the cycle network and update to a greener bus fleet. Johnsons says that the Government will invest up to £220M on it. However, the conservative part is keen to support the Heathrow expansion and its reliance on shale gas, which is a fossil fuel. Though it is less contaminant than petrol.

Note: The Government banned new fracking licenses

It is expected, they will develop an offshore wind farm legislation to be able to get more energy from renewable sources.

Its Manifesto also highlight they ratify their commitment with the Paris Agreement 2015.

Doing a quantitative analysis of the terms used The Green Bee see how carefully they chose the words. ‘Environment’ and ‘Brexit’ has been used almost the same number of times. The former has been used 16 times while the latter has been used 15. But, Climate Change has been used just 5 times, while ‘EU’ (or European Union, no Europe as a continent) has been used 76 times.

There is not a single mention for Climate as a crisis.

Here the Conservative Manifesto 2017 is.

Labours

 Jeremy Corbyn’s party fight for its Green New Deal. Firstly, they said 60% of the UK energy come from renewable or zero-carbon by 2030. For that, it will need a massive investment in renewable energies and transport.

They proposed to get back the rail service to state ownership. It is a controversial measure which has been not even formulated.

The party hope this transition will create new qualified jobs. The climate transition will need professionals to set the PV’s panel, develop electric vehicles and technologies.

On the social side, Climate Change is something which affects everybody; the poorer the most. The New Green Deal speaks about help developing countries in the climate transition and welcoming climate refugees.

Here the Labour Manifesto 2017 is

Liberal Democrats

Lib Dems are who champion for Remain. Brexit will likely be its central topic during the campaign. And also it will its second and third favourite topic. However, they try to push a bit further on their environmental targets. It mentions 80% of the UK energy coming from zero-carbon sources by 2040 and 100% by 2050. Nevertheless, it is unlikely it will have the power enough to fulfil its goal.

It is worth noting Lib Dems is the only party who talks to give more power to Local Authorities in transport and energy suppliers.

In addition, they support ban Fracking and roll out from fossil fuels.

However, his Manifesto gives same mentions to ‘Brexit’ (23) than ‘Environment’ (24). Yet while it mentions 11 times’ Climate change’, ‘EU’ appears 55 times.

Here the Lib Dems Manifesto 2017 is.

The Greens

The Green’s Manifesto starts with a powerful statement: “The Green Party is the only party that puts the environment at the heart of all our policies”. And it is as simple as that.

Though its Manifesto 2017 shows clear concerns about the environment, it forgets everything else. Nevertheless, the Green Bee would give them her vote. Just for look after her hive, which is all the Earth.

Here the Greens Manifesto 2017 is.

 Let’s the battle begins

The truth is this vote is not a surprise. Politicians had started their campaign a long time ago. Brexit will be the main topic in the politicians’ speeches, and it will occupy many (more) front pages. However, in the elections will be decided next Government who will lead with many other topics and not just Brexit.