When I arrived at the Labour party conference last year, it was hard to miss its new slogan – A Fairer, Greener Future – which was emblazoned across Liverpool exhibition centre. Just a few small words, but such prominence for the climate at a national political party conference put a smile on my face.
But, as we saw today in Keir Starmer’s speech to the National Farmers’ Union, the party is less vocal about its plans to solve the nature crisis. There is no green or fair future without nature, and there is no solution to the climate crisis unless we put nature into recovery at pace and scale.
There have been significant achievements by Labour governments on nature – wonderfully summed up but simultaneously exploded by John Prescott when he said in 1998, “The green belt is a Labour achievement – and we mean to build on it.” However, the roadmap to a fairer, greener future that Labour published at its last conference does not mention nature, nor what is needed to reverse its dramatic and alarming declines.
Addressing the climate crisis has not come naturally to the Conservatives – they are more at home with “countryside” issues. Sometimes these align with a nature-positive agenda, sometimes not. Recently Conservatives have come close to losing this advantage and have created an opportunity for Starmer to seize.
The river pollution scandal, partly a product of austerity cuts to enforcement agencies, now plagues the government and swamps Conservative MPs’ mailboxes. Even worse, the Liz Truss government’s efforts to dismantle environmental protections, which were branded an “attack on nature”, continue under Rishi Sunak with the appalling retained EU law bill.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...nal-parks-keir-starmer-silent-nature-survival
But, as we saw today in Keir Starmer’s speech to the National Farmers’ Union, the party is less vocal about its plans to solve the nature crisis. There is no green or fair future without nature, and there is no solution to the climate crisis unless we put nature into recovery at pace and scale.
There have been significant achievements by Labour governments on nature – wonderfully summed up but simultaneously exploded by John Prescott when he said in 1998, “The green belt is a Labour achievement – and we mean to build on it.” However, the roadmap to a fairer, greener future that Labour published at its last conference does not mention nature, nor what is needed to reverse its dramatic and alarming declines.
Addressing the climate crisis has not come naturally to the Conservatives – they are more at home with “countryside” issues. Sometimes these align with a nature-positive agenda, sometimes not. Recently Conservatives have come close to losing this advantage and have created an opportunity for Starmer to seize.
The river pollution scandal, partly a product of austerity cuts to enforcement agencies, now plagues the government and swamps Conservative MPs’ mailboxes. Even worse, the Liz Truss government’s efforts to dismantle environmental protections, which were branded an “attack on nature”, continue under Rishi Sunak with the appalling retained EU law bill.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...nal-parks-keir-starmer-silent-nature-survival