The Liberal Democrats have the most ambitious green manifesto policies of the three main parties – but all parties must make climate a bigger election issue, an assessment by Friends of the Earth of the main political party manifestos reveals today (Monday 26 April 2010).

The green campaigning group said that there was little to choose between Labour and Conservative pledges overall. The Green Party had the most ambitious environmental policies of all.

Friends of the Earth also hit out at the parties’ lack of focus on the environment during the election period and called on party leaders to raise its profile in the final phase of the campaign.

Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director Andy Atkins said:

“Developing a low carbon economy is essential for the UK’s long-term security and prosperity – and must be an urgent priority for the next Government.

“The Liberal Democrats have the most ambitious and integrated environmental commitments of the three main parties, with Labour and the Conservatives lagging behind.

“But none of the main party manifestos are bold enough to meet the challenge of tackling climate change and seizing the huge economic benefits of creating a greener, safer future.

“Climate change is the biggest challenge the planet faces and the decisions the next Government makes will have a major impact on generations to come – party leaders must do more to make it a central part of the campaign.

“All party leaders must show their commitment to tackling climate change by explaining clearly how they will keep our environment safe and healthy, and make it cheaper and easier for us all to go green, in the final phase of the campaign.”

Notes to editors:

1.    Friends of the Earth is running its most aggressive election campaign ever to make sure politicians push the environment up the political agenda. To sign up or read our regular blogs on the General Election visit www.foe.co.uk/election.

2.    Friends of the Earth is calling on the political parties to include effective environmental policies in their manifestos, policies that help safeguard the planet’s climate and natural environment for the long-term safety and wellbeing of us all.

The green campaigning charity compared the manifesto commitments of the three major Westminster parties and the Green Party to the key policies we had called on them to include before the election was called. We also examined other green policies they had included and looked at the overall profile they each gave to the environment to arrive at the following conclusions. 

A detailed assessment by Friends of the Earth of the Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Green Party manifestos, and the criteria we assessed them against, can be found at: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/election_manifesto¬
_assessment.pdf

Highlights are below:

• Of the major parties, the Liberal Democrats have the best policy in eight of the areas we called for, and are joint best in a further one. They also integrated the environment into their overall policy and gave it the highest profile.
• Labour have better policies in two areas – although one of these, on local councils, was far from adequate if still better than other parties. They were also joint best in one.  The party also put forward two particularly bad policies on road-widening and airport-expansion.
• Conservative proposals were lacking in detail rather than policy breadth. The effectiveness of many of the policies they propose – such as CAP reforms to deliver sustainability, floors on carbon price and landfill taxes, use of Government procurement – are difficult because of the lack of clarity.
• The Green Party have the most ambitious spending plans, targets and policies across most of the policy areas.