17 March 2021

• Councillor Carla Denyer: “It is depressing to see how, yet again on a vital green issue, the government has aimed low and will still miss its target.”

The government’s new industrial decarbonisation strategy [1] goes nowhere near far enough and lacks the proper plan and finance to achieve its aims, the Green Party has warned.

Bristol Green Party Councillor Carla Denyer, who proposed the UK’s first climate emergency declaration, said:

“We welcome the government’s recognition that CO2 emissions must be squeezed out of UK industrial production, although the target of reducing emissions by two-thirds by 2035 is inadequate.

“But we have to ask Greta Thunberg’s resounding question: ‘Where is the plan?’ This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a government department offer only hot air when what is needed is a clear plan and funding to back it up.

“Instead of an ambitious plan and funding on the scale we have seen from the EU and US, this strategy is nothing more than wishful thinking. It is depressing to see how, yet again on a vital green issue, the government has aimed low and will still miss its target.”

David Flint, convenor of the Green Party’s Climate Emergency Policy Working Group, added:

“If we take the strategy on its own terms, it fails to address the ultimate high emitters – oil and gas – which are problematic both offshore and onshore. Indeed, without a clear commitment to reduce oil and gas refining, both carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen may simply prolong the pollution. Hydrogen is not a solution unless it is rolled out alongside sufficient renewable electricity to produce it and we are far from achieving that.

“The government has also failed to rise to the challenge of phasing out carbon-intensive blast furnaces in steel production. We simply cannot arrive at a net-zero carbon emission economy unless we undergo a rapid transition of our steel industry. We need a government plan to urgently invest in electric arc furnaces melting scrap steel to minimise the amount of carbon released from the industry.”

ENDS

Notes

1

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-decarbonisation-strategy

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16 March 2021

‘Unless everybody is secure, nobody is secure’

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley has responded this morning to the Integrated Review calling it ‘Misguided’. He said:

“This review is based on meaningless rhetoric about Global Britain and a desire to boost the sale of arms by British companies. It will do nothing to increase the security of British people. The posturing about providing global leadership on cooperation and democracy will convince nobody, especially coming from a government that is in an ongoing dispute with its closest neighbours and has shamelessly broken treaty obligations entered into less than a year ago.

“Much is made of the potential of the Indo-Pacific region. But the power in that region lies with the Quad – USA, India, Japan and Australia – who had their inaugural meeting last week and felt no need to call on the services of Boris Johnson. [1] Such post-colonial fantasies will do nothing to make up for the damage to our trading, diplomatic and security relationships caused by Brexit.”

Bartley went on to consider the real meaning of security, saying:

“We are also horrified that, at a time when the UN is actively seeking to negotiate nuclear disarmament, the government is proposing to increase the UK’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. We repeat our demand for the government to live up to its legally binding commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and sign up to the UN Treaty on the Prohibitions of Nuclear Weapons. [2]

“We deeply regret the misguided framing of security as a competitive survival of the fittest and a failure to grasp that the real source of insecurity across the world is the sale of arms and climate destabilisation for which the UK itself is largely responsible.

“Rather than being based in competition, the government should set a vision for global security and resilience in all countries.

“Unless everybody is secure, nobody is secure.”

ENDS 

Notes:

[1] White House statement on the Quad reaffirming their commitment to ‘quadrilateral cooperation between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.’

[2] Mark Urban, Newsnight’s Diplomatic Editor, notes proposal to raise ‘cap’ on nuclear warheads from 180 to 260. As he notes ‘it’s hard to reconcile with, “the determined pursuit by the nuclear-weapon States of systematic & progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally”, a commitment made by UK govt in 1995 extension to Nuc Non-Proliferation Treaty’.

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14 March 2021

The Green Party has condemned the harmful and shocking Metropolitan police action on Clapham Common this weekend. 

Responding to policing at the vigil, Green Party co-leader and candidate for Mayor of London Sian Berry said:

“I can’t think of a more shameful way for an organisation to have handled this whole situation. 

“There was literally no chance of this being a violent event if it had been left in peace. And given what prompted it, these scenes are just abhorrent and traumatic to see for so many of us.

“The Met has failed on every level and it’s hard to see how the Commissioner – and the Mayor and the Home Secretary – could not be considering her position right now.”

The highly politicised policing bill arrives in the House of Commons tomorrow, and the Green Party is adamant this should be opposed in order to stop the right to peaceful protest being curtailed. 

Jenny Jones, Green Peer and former member of the Met monitoring body said:

“The government wants to use this new policing bill to buttress its political power in a way typical of an authoritarian regime. 

“The police used extra-ordinary powers this weekend to stop and break up a peaceful vigil, imagine what they would do if given a new set of extraordinary post-covid powers to stop peaceful protest.

“The resources spent on our police force should be used to protect us all. We don’t want money that could be used to protect women‘s lives spent defending the political interests of this far right government.”

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12 March 2021

• Party repeats call for UK to explore options for rejoining the customs union

Former MEP and economics professor Molly Scott Cato has demanded urgent action after trade figures released this morning showed a 40% decline in UK exports to the EU. [1]

Dr Scott Cato said:

“I am horrified by clear evidence that Johnson’s determination to ‘f**k business’ [2] has succeeded so dramatically. The decision to put up new trade barriers with our largest trading partner has had the inevitable consequences that we warned about with trade falling off a cliff.

“We need to take urgent action to reverse the destructive decision to cut ties with our closest neighbours. This is why the Green Party has called for the government to think again about choosing the hardest possible Brexit and to seek ways to rejoin the EU customs union as a matter of urgency.”

Dr Scott Cato, who was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the European Movement, continued:

“As an MEP I took the government to court to release the studies of the impact of Brexit on our economy. Now I understand why they fought so hard to keep them secret.

“Commentators are trying to lessen the blow by suggesting that these figures may be impacted by stockpiling and teething problems but this is entirely to miss to the point. 

“The decision to leave the European Union was an act of wanton destruction driven by a tiny elite for their own self-serving reasons. The devastating consequences for the rest of us are only now beginning to play out.”

ENDS

Notes

1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56370690

2

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44618154

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