General election 2019: Labour leads on combating climate change, says Friends of the Earth A Friends of the Earth survey found Labour had the strongest policies

Labour has the most impressive environmental policies, a Friends of the Earth (FoE) survey has found.

While the Greens and the Liberal Democrats also set out important policies to tackle climate change, the Conservatives scored poorly.

Key areas covered in the survey included climate targets, energy, transport, food and nature. In contrast to the Conservatives ‘actively damaging’ transport policies, Labour has revealed a new policy to curb emissions caused by flying.

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Dave Timms, Friends of the Earth’s head of political affairs, said: “Environmental issues have been given greater priority in this election than ever before – and with the world in the midst of an ecological and climate crisis this must be the next government’s top priority.

“Many of the policies that Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Green party have put forward are commensurate with, or striving to meet, the challenges we face. It is disappointing we have not yet seen the same urgency, ambition or consistency from the Conservative party.

New policies to fight climate change

“We don’t have time for yet more dither and delay – the next government needs to urgently start the work of transforming our economy and infrastructure, and restoring nature to deliver a safer, brighter future.”

The FoE survey gave each party a mark out of 45. The scores were:

• Labour: 33

• Green: 31

• Liberal Democrat: 30

• Conservatives: 5.5

Following the publication of each party’s manifesto, FoE sent them their initial environmental score and gave them the chance to make extra pledges, clarifications or restatements of ecological measures.

Labour took this opportunity to announce plans for a frequent flyer levy, toughen up carbon targets in regard to aviation and cancel Heathrow expansion if it was found to be inconsistent with the targets. The party’s secretaries of state also pledged to redirect funds from the road building programme into public transport projects.

The Liberal Democrats added new pledges to their manifesto, recommitting to statements put forward in their previously published Climate Emergency policy document. However, the Greens failed to set out new promises.

Conservatives’ policies ‘invariably weaker’

Mr Timms added: “Labour’s manifesto contains strong, funded policies on home energy efficiency and renewables. This was boosted by significant additional pledges during the campaign on plans for tree planting, food policy, public transport and cycling – as well as a commitment to strong environmental law and enforcement.

“The Lib Dems and Greens both scored similarly and had a suite of policies which were consistently judged to meet, and sometimes exceed, Friends of the Earth’s policy demands.

“Despite the Conservative Party manifesto offering decent policies on plastics and agricultural subsidies and restatement of the moratorium on fracking, in sector after sector its commitments were invariably weaker than the other parties, entirely absent or just plain bad.

“Their manifesto consistently failed to step up to address the climate and nature emergencies, which are hurting communities right now and will deliver catastrophe in the future. We were concerned that they failed to restate commitments to some existing positive government policies.”