The General Election - A time for real change for the environment?

 

I was first able to vote in a general election in 1997, it was my first year of university and I was quite naively optimistic about exercising my democratic vote, things can only get better, right. I remember then that my vote was for the Conservatives, mainly because having grown up in the 80’s they were all I had ever known, and I came from a conservative leaning household. I think most of my friends see me as a Conservative, but my political affiliations change and are focused on the issues, the parties I vote for in general elections are often very different to those in local elections. As I have grown and matured, I have learned to examine the issues and weigh the pros and cons. As such since 1997 in the various votes that have been held, I have voted Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party, Plaid Cymru and Independent. I give this piece of personal background as a prelude to the rest of the post to try and illustrate that I try to be impartial in most matters.

In the past 5 or 6 general election campaigns I have attempted to place the environment on the agenda for consideration. I am probably one of the few who actually read the manifesto and weigh the pros and cons of the various policies. This analysis has in some years been very detailed and I have looked at tangential policies that may affect the environment but this time in a wave of apathy I do not think I have the strength to do the same. In previous elections I have written to the local candidates and asked them to extol their environmental policies and publicize them in the local press.

I have been involved in green politics for many years and I am now incredibly disillusioned. Politicians make the right sounds but rarely follow through when elected. I understand the difficulties of running the country and the competing time and interests but time after time the position of climate change and nature conservation are treated with very little respect.

This apathy had led me not to bother to comment on this election thus far which looks like the end point for Prime Minister Sunak and the appointment of Keir Starmer. The talking points about the election seem to be focused mainly on the economy and immigration, and then I remembered that I still had to vote and thought I at least had to make the effort to address the field and its runners and riders. So here we are, more of an essay than an analysis of the main parties’ environmental policies, I have only chosen to look at the three main parties as it is obvious that the Green Party has the best policies and Reform has very few.

The saddest part of the manifesto trawl was that the two main parties did not have specific sections of the environment instead drawing the issues into the ones surrounding energy and climate change. The Conservatives have sections on “affordable and pragmatic transition to net zero” and “supporting our rural way of life and enhance our environment”, whilst Labour’s “Make Britain and clean superpower” has sections including nature, clean water and animal welfare. The Liberal Democrats have sections on climate change and energy, and the natural environment.

On energy and climate change, Labour and the Conservatives have similar approaches, both push the development of nuclear power with new small modular reactors, a drive to invest in carbon capture and an expansion of renewable energies. The Conservatives wish to build new gas power stations whilst Labour wish to stop issuing any new licences for any oil, gas and coal exploration. The Liberals are more specific with very detailed ideas on committing to net zero by 2045 and investing in renewables so that they make up 90% of provision by 2030.

Given the recent travesty of the pollution of our rivers all three parties express a desire to act upon the water companies. The Conservatives wish to increase fines on the water companies and use those fines to pay for river restoration. Labour and the Liberals suggest new water authorities, regulatory bodies and greater legislative powers.

Specifically on biodiversity and the wider environment the Conservatives had very little more to add with a commitment to more tree planting and peat land protection, cutting red tape for tree planting and the designation of an 11^th National Park with improvement to the existing ones.

Labour plans to ban fracking, eradicate TB to end the badger cull (although they do not state how), ban trail hunting and ban hunting trophies. The Liberal Democrats go the furthest desiring to double the size of protected areas by 2050, plant 60 million trees a year, increase funding for the Environment Agency and Natural England (and by extension I guess CCCW and SNH), ensure new developments result in significant net gain for biodiversity and the protection of peatlands and temperate rainforests and a real network of marine protection areas.

So, where does this leave us. I think it is fair to say that on the balance of things that the effort made to combat the issues of Biodiversity in the UK is pretty dismal, I think it accurate to say that the environment will not be addressed in the press , husting or any TV debates. The manifestos spend very little time on the issue at all. The Liberal Democrats have the most detailed plan and cover a much wider range of the core environmental issues. The two big hitters have just rolled the whole cause of conservation into climate change and the energy crisis.

Now this may all seem very demoralizing, and a general election is about policies wider than just the environment, global security and the economy are very important, but I hope that every voter at least takes the time to consider it. I would urge every reader not to take my word on matters and that they themselves take the time to browse through the manifestos and reach their own judgement and make their decision on the 4^th July from a position of understanding and knowledge. Who will I vote for? I leave that to the sanctity of the voting booth. I have always voted with my head, perhaps its time I listen to my heart.