UK General Election 2024: EIA sets out its key green policies for the next Government

As UK political parties hit the campaign trail in earnest for the 4 July General Election, EIA today released its own manifesto of key policy recommendations.

The 17-point action plan Our Planet, Our Problem is released against the backdrop of the mounting triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

EIA Campaigns Director Julian Newman delivers Our Planet, Our Problem to the Labour Party HQ in London (c) EIA

EIA marks its 40^th anniversary this year since it began investigating, exposing and campaigning against environmental crime and abuse and the charity believes the next UK Government has a key role to play as a part of international efforts to secure a viable future.

EIA Campaigns Director Julian Newman delivered copies of Our Planet, Our Problem to the major political parties this week and said: “The urgency for taking action cannot be overstated.

“Our key policy recommendations to the parties contesting the next election will, if acted upon, ensure that the country’s next Government implements progressive policies and takes strong actions to show leadership, both at home and internationally, to safeguard the future of our planet.”

Fuelled by climate change, the world’s oceans have broken temperature records every single day over the past year and 2024 saw the warmest April on record in terms of global air temperatures. Analysis of more than 147,500 species found that in excess of 41,000 are threatened with extinction. Between 1990 and 2020, about 420 million hectares of forest has been lost and a further 10 million hectares is being lost each year. More than 12 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year.

Key asks in EIA’s manifesto include:

• reinstate the commitment of allocating 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income to international development
• ensure the environmental and human rights are at the heart of UK trade deals and international development policies
• make tackling environmental crime a priority and focus of agencies and Government departments responsible for other forms of serious and organised crime
• put Nature2030 at the heart of policy at home and abroad by delivering the UN Convention on Biological Diversity 30 x 30 targets
• cancel all new oil and gas licences and join international calls for a managed phase-out of fossil fuels
• recommit to the obligations of the 2015 Paris Agreement, substantially strengthening measures to rapidly reduce emissions and achieve net zero emissions in the early 2040s
• advocate for an adjustment of the Kigali Amendment of 2016 to accelerate the global phase-down of climate-harming hydrofluorocarbons refrigerants under the Montreal Protocol
• halt the significant, ongoing decline in biodiversity in the UK by urgently developing robust, time-bound, costed and quantifiable domestic targets and measures to implement its global commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
• ensure that halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation are at the forefront of efforts to meet Paris Agreement targets
• fully implement the 2021 Environment Act to ensure businesses are using legally sourced forest-risk commodities and extend its scope
• commit to negotiating and adopting an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty and ban the export of all its plastic waste from the UK.

Read EIA’s manifesto in full.