Cross-party Green New Deal calls for actions to help deliver Net Zero by 2030
Fri 20 September 2019
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Cross-party MPs led by the Green's Caroline Lucas and Labour's Clive Lewis have announced plans to table legislation to force the government to bring forward the Net Zero target to 2030 and implement wide-ranging measures to achieve it.
Dubbed the “Green New Deal” (echoing similar proposals under discussion in the United States), its proponents say that the new bill would shift focus from economic growth towards reducing inequality, tackling the climate emergency and protecting the natural environment.
The Independent reports that the legislation would herald a major push towards decarbonising the economy, by looking at ways to reduce air travel and cut consumption of meat and dairy, single-use plastic and packaging.
Businesses would have a legal responsibility to manage their carbon emissions, while banks, local government and other forms of government will be forced to consider their climate responsibilities.
It would also include measures to overhaul energy and transport systems, to decarbonising farming and to ensure all new homes are carbon neutral.
Clive Lewis, a shadow treasury minister, said: “Our demands are quite clear and quite simple: we want a Green New Deal that will radically change how our economy works and for whom.
“It will mean the democratisation of our economy on a scale not seen since 1945 but done for the twenty-first century, so that it empowers people and communities not ever more powerful, unresponsive bureaucracies."
While the Labour party is not officially supporting the bill, the party has come under pressure to do so as activists voted in favour of the 2030 target at their recent Party Conference in Brighton. (See
this link.)
Caroline Lucas said: “The young climate strikers on the streets today don’t just want climate action, they want a Green New Deal that delivers for everyone. If we are to mend our broken democracy and give people hope for their future, we must invest in an economy where we live sustainably, differently and more equally.
“We know this is possible. We know it’s essential. Our system is in crisis and faces environmental and political breakdown.
“Our Green New Deal Bill, launched this morning, sets out an action plan. When parliament returns, we will be doing everything we can to make it happen.”
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