Green Party 2024 Manifesto
As we head towards a new political landscape, our Barbour writing team will pick out the key policies, pledges and manifesto talking points from all the main political parties that are going to affect you. We'll keep you in the loop leading up to the General Election, and after it, so you won't miss a thing!
The Green Party manifesto advocates for a fairer, greener and cleaner town and urgent action relating to climate change. Their pledges include:
Providing fairer, greener homes for all
With their Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price charter, the Green party proposes to protect valuable green space for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing by:
- requiring local authorities to spread small developments across their areas;
- requiring all new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local health, transport and other services;
- ensuring all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards; and
- house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes.
In terms of energy bills, the party aims for a local authority-led, street-by-street retrofit programmed to insulate homes, provide clean heat and adapt buildings to more extreme climate conditions. To achieve this, there would be investments of:
- £29bn over the next five years to insulate homes to an EPC B standard or above as part of a ten-year programme;
- £4bn over the next five years to insulate other buildings to a high standard; and
- £9bn over the next five years for low-carbon heating systems (e.g. heat pumps) for homes and other buildings.
Creating a fairer, greener economy
Green MPs hope to deliver an economy that radiates security, wellbeing and a better quality of life for everyone, while also protecting the environment and enabling them to tackle the climate crisis.
They would push for a Green Economic Transformation that includes a:
- £40bn investment per year in the shift to a green economy over the course of the next Parliament;
- carbon tax to drive fossil fuels out of our economy and raise money to invest in the green transition;
- £12.4bn investment in skills and training, equipping workers to play a full role in the green economy; and
- share of community ownership in local sustainable energy infrastructure such as wind farms.
They also hope to bring the railways, water companies and the Big Five retail energy companies into public ownership.
Powering up fairer, greener energy
The manifesto proposes to accelerate clean energy investment and delivery. Green MPs hope to transition to net zero by 2040 with a zero carbon electricity supply and security of supply over short and long periods of low generation, with sufficient electricity for all cars and vans to be electric, for all homes and buildings to stop using fossil fuels, and for most industry to transition to clean energy. To achieve this, they will urge for:
- wind to provide around 70% of the UK’s electricity by 2030;
- delivery of 80GW of offshore wind, 53 GW of onshore wind, and 100 GW of solar by 2035;
- investment in energy storage capacity and more efficient electricity distribution; and
- communities to own their own energy sources, ensuring they can use any profit from selling excess energy to reduce their bills or benefit their communities.
They also aim to phase out fossil fuels by:
- cancelling recent fossil fuel licences such as for Rosebank and stop all new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK;
- removing all oil and gas subsidies; and
- introducing a carbon tax on all fossil fuel imports and domestic extraction, based on greenhouse gas emissions produced when fuel is burned.
In terms of nuclear power, they hope to see this phased out due to its unsafe nature, expense and its unmanageable quantities of radioactive waste and link with the production of nuclear weapons.
Bringing nature back to life
In order to protect and restore nature, Elected Greens will campaign to:
- introduce a new Rights of Nature Act, giving rights to nature itself;
- end the scandal of sewage pouring into our rivers and seas by taking the water companies back into public ownership;
- extend people’s access to green space and waterways close to where they live with a new English Right to Roam Act; and
- set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030 in which nature will receive the highest priority and protection.
They will also propose an immediate end to the emergency authorisation of bee-killing pesticides and a new Clean Air (Human Rights) Act.
Fairer, greener food and farming
As the food system accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and is the greatest driver of nature loss and pollution in rivers, Green MPs propose to work with farmers and other stakeholders to transform the food and farming system. Elected Greens will push for:
- financial support for farmers to be almost tripled to support their transition to nature-friendly farming;
- biodiversity and soil health to be conserved and improved, leading to cleaner rivers;
- farm payments to be linked to reduced use of pesticides and other agro-chemicals;
- all children to have a free school meal each day and free breakfast clubs for children to Year 6;
- schools to involve children in growing, preparing and cooking food, as part of the core curriculum; and
- policies that ensure that good quality surplus food is not wasted.
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