PREFACE: The Green Party believes we need to reduce the UK's 
emissions by around 90 per cent by 2030, to have a fighting change of  staving off devastating climate change. This means cutting our  emissions at about 9 per cent a year. We are the only party prepared  to accept that ecological factors mean that infinite growth is  impossible on a finite planet, and to come up with practical policy 
measures to deal with that reality.We are also the only party to 
recognise the truly radical cuts required to our emissions. The 
traditional growth-based economic model is failing both people and 
planet.

Environmental policies that we endorse and, where possible, are 
currently working towards include:

* Contraction and Convergence strategic framework

Contraction & Convergence is based on two principles: contraction of 
global carbon emissions and convergence of per capita emissions 
across the global population.

The convergence mechanism allows distribution of emission 
entitlements across the world to converge on equality. At the end of 
the convergence period countries receive entitlements in proportion 
to the size of their population. Developed countries are the first to 
make large cuts in their emissions levels, whereas developing 
countries are permitted to keep increasing their emissions levels for 
a period before also beginning to cut their emissions. Countries 
would be allowed to trade carbon emission allowances but strict caps 
would apply, with effective enforcement mechanisms.

Supported by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, these 
principles provide the only strategic framework for emissions 
reduction as well as balancing the use of carbon-based fuel equitably 
between the world's peoples.

* Personal Carbon Credits and Trading:

Personal Carbon Credits aim to reduce the UK's carbon emissions, and 
change the way we as a society view carbon emissions by making each 
of us personally responsible for our own carbon footprint. Credits 
would be tradable and would cover all emissions of carbon dioxide 
produced by the burning of fossil fuels as well as: a) Purchase of 
electricity (from non-renewable sources) b) Air flights c) Direct 
purchase of fossil fuels (gas, coal, petrol, diesel, fuel oil)
The total annual carbon credit would be equal to current total carbon 
emissions. The credit is then reduced annually in line with agreed 
targets (as outlined under Contraction and Convergence). A proportion 
of the total credit would be distributed by the government to all 
eligible adults in the UK for personal needs (all adults receive the 
same quota).

The remaining quota is then sold to organisations (public, private 
and voluntary) through a system set up by the government. Another 
system is set up by the government for people and organisations to 
buy and sell quotas.

* Scrap VAT -  a blunt instrument which fails to take account of the 
environmental impact of goods and services -  and replace with taxes 
so that the price of goods and services  reflects, more accurately, 
the 'externalities' and environmental costs of  production and 
consumption.

( VAT is administratively over-complex (and therefore expensive to 
implement)  and puts a disproportionate burden on small and medium 
sized businesses, who act as unpaid tax collectors. In addition, and 
more importantly, VAT does not  work to establish any direct link 
between taxation and the environmental  consequences of consumption.

The Green Party will therefore phase out VAT and expand the range of  
environmental taxation to create an integrated system of eco-taxes 
based on  natural resource usage, pollution and waste. Very broadly, 
these eco-taxes will aim to correct the existing market so that the 
price of goods and services  reflects, more accurately, the 
'externalities' and environmental costs of
production and consumption. Their aim is to encourage behaviour that  
contributes to long term sustainability rather than raise additional 
government  revenue. These taxes will therefore, broadly speaking, be 
revenue neutral and will be offset against reductions in the scope 
and rate of Value Added Tax.)


* £500 million boost for renewable energy grants - £300 million of 
which would go to the Low Carbon Buildings Fund - the government fund 
supposed to encourage uptake of micro-renewables technology.

* Longer term, Greens would provide about £1 billion a year in loans 
for renewable energy, rather than Labour's £30 million a year in grants.

Renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and solar power, are 
clean, cheap and safe. They do not rely on massive subsidies from the 
taxpayer far into the future, or a scarce and finite supply of high- 
grade uranium. Nor can they do irreparable harm to our world and our 
health.

* Climate Change Levy paid by businesses to double

* Embark on Emergency home insulation programme - Greens want to see 
insulation of 2.5 million homes a year, ten times the size of the 
government's programme which would lead to a dramatic cut in both 
emissions and bills.

* All new housing to meet much higher energy efficiency standards

* Regulation of retail heating and lighting - Oblige retailers to use 
25 per cent less energy than the previous year

* Replace renewables obligations  (RO) with long run Feed In Tariffs  
- By paying households to generate clean, green electricity, the 
market mechanism of feed-in tariff schemes can be used to shift our 
electricity production by making investment in renewables cost 
effective for the individual.

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* Scrap Trident nuclear weapons renewal

* Phase out nuclear power stations - and don't build any new ones, 
thus not exacerbating the problem of storing highly dangerous nuclear 
waste.

* Waste heat tax levied on power stations and proportional to the 
heat wasted in cooling towers etc. This would encourage combined heat 
and power systems- French have a tax like this

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* Immediately halt any further airport expansion

* Require airlines to place health warnings on all aviation adverts, 
detailing the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases  emitted on 
flights advertised

* Raise Air Passenger Duty to £100

* Tax aviation fuel - bringing about an end to what amounts to a 
public subsidy of some £9 billion a year

* Scrap government £30 billion road building programme

* Worst gas guzzling cars to pay £1800 tax disc

* Increase Vechicle Excise Duty - bands rising by £300 steps with 
Band A rising to Band G at £1800 as originally proposed by the 
Sustainable Development Commission

* Restoration of the fuel duty escalator (scrapped by the government 
in 1999) over 2 years  to the level it would have been at -  This 
would mean a rise in the price of petrol from 88p per litre  now to 
£1.29

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* Greens would introduce transport subsides worth in total £ 3 
billion per annum to reduce fares

Increase subsidies local authorities can provide for bus services and 
give them regulatory power to at least double the number of trips 
made by bus. Subsidy to reduce rail fares.

* Bring the railways back into public ownership - thus ensuring lower 
fares, build greater capacity and so reduce the amount of car use 
across the country

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*  Work towards Zero Waste strategy:

-  Introduce a tax on packaging (at the point of manufacturer) to 
reduce the amount of waste created in the first place and double the 
rate of Landfill tax (which would achieve a reduction in methane)

- Encourage and regulate the production of products so that waste is 
minimised later in the life cycle - 'end of life recycling'

- Increase access to and education about recycling with 60 per cent 
more to be spent by local authorities on waste management on 
recycling, and halt any further incinerator construction

- Ban the import of toxic, hazardous or radioactive waste

- Strengthen controls on polluting industries and processes

- Introduce and enforce the 'polluter pays principle'

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* Phase out stand by facilities on consumer goods eg TVs, Steros etc

* Phase out energy inefficient light bulbs

* Work towards embodied carbon labeling - where the total emissions 
created in the manufacture and transport of any goods is clear

* Moratorium on GM crops

* Introduce nitrogen tax levied at the point of fixation of 
atmospheric nitrogen thus increasing the cost of artificial 
fertilizers and reducing nitrous oxide emissions and fertilizer 
pollution of water courses

(reduced artificial fertilizer use would reduce emissions of nitrous 
oxide from soils. Would penalize non-organic farming and help combat 
fertilizer pollution of water courses)

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* Oppose ever greater liberalisation of world trade, which encourages 
emissions associated with long distance trade

Greens would radically overhaul the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO: 
We would replace the general agreements on tariffs and trade with a 
general agreement on sustainable trade in order to change the 
priorities of these institutions from promotion of free trade at all 
costs to promotion of the protection of the environment - so trade 
policy would work to encourage economic localisation where possible.

* Responsible sourcing policy - end to trade in illegal logging, 
destruction of the rainforests.

Greens want to see responsible use of our natural resources - so not 
only shifting from a carbon based economy to a renewable based 
economy but also ensuring that  materials used are sourced 
responsibly and ethically

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* Support organic agriculture and forestry and reduce polluting 
factory farming practices

* Facilitate farm box schemes, farmers markets and other ways of 
encouraging local food

* End set aside and encourage productive woodland or food crops instead

* More allotments

* Encourage reduction of consumption in products derived from 
livestock and hence reduce methane emissions (a greenhouse gas).

* Replace the Common Fisheries Policy by one that sustains fish stocks

* Introduce selected restrictions on the import of timber to reduce 
pressure on the world timber resources, particularly from the 
tropical rainforests.

* More Park and Ride and reduce parking spaces in town centres and at 
workplaces

* Support local shops and oppose out of town megastores which 
encourage car use

* Better facilities and support for walking and cycling

  * Make environmental education an important part of the curriculum.

* Increase protection for wildlife and wildlife habitats

* Redirect government spending on scientific and technical research 
away from defence uses and towards sustainable processes

* Encourage local tourism


Green Party Press Office
020 7561 0282
http://www.greenparty.org.uk