9 December 2022
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has made a series of key demands of Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey during a visit to a nature reserve in her Suffolk constituency today [Friday] which sits in the shadow of the planned Sizewell C nuclear power plant.
Ramsay visited the important RSPB Minsmere site while politicians from around the world attended the UN COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal. He called on the Environment Secretary to show international leadership on the issue, starting with fully reversing the government’s attacks on nature.
Ramsay has called on the government to:
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Publish a clear pathway to meet its commitment to restore 30% of land for nature by 2030
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To scrap plans to weaken protections for nature in the Retained EU Law (revocation and reform) Bill
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Stop dragging its feet on introducing the promised nature-friendly farming payments scheme
Ramsay, who is standing as a parliamentary candidate for the Greens in Suffolk at the next general election, said:
“The government’s attacks on nature have rightly been very strongly challenged by the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the National Trust and others. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Protecting and restoring nature is deeply important to people in Thérèse Coffey’s constituency and around the country. During the biodiversity COP, the Environment Secretary must rethink the government’s approach and show international leadership on this crucial issue.
“Minsmere is a great example of rich and varied landscapes, managed carefully by the RSPB to ensure that the huge variety of wildlife survives and thrives. Yet this site, within the environment secretary’s constituency, is under threat from the Sizewell C nuclear power plant [2], which was given the go ahead by the government last week. Meanwhile the government’s weak and harmful policies are failing to prevent and reverse further declines in wildlife and nature at sites across the country.
“That’s why the Green Party is calling for the government to immediately stop dragging its feet on introducing the promised nature-friendly farming payments scheme, publish a clear pathway to meet its commitment to restore 30% of land for nature by 2030 and scrap plans to weaken protections for nature in the Retained EU Law (revocation and reform) Bill.”
Earlier in the week the Green Party also called on the government to introduce a Rights of Nature Act to extend legal protections for wildlife and habitats in England and Wales, and establish an independent Commission for Nature to oversee the Act’s enforcement [3].
ENDS
Notes
1
https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/minsmere/
2
https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/casework/cases/sizewell-c/
3
https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/12/07/greens-call-to-extend-legal-protections-for-wildlife/
For more information or to arrange an interview contact the press office on press@greenparty.org.uk or call 0203 691 9401
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