BRITISH LABOUR COMMITS TO A GREEN NEW DEAL

The British Labour Party has committed itself to a Green New Deal, including zero carbon emissions by 2030 and the nationalisation of Britain's six largest energy companies.

IN A SIGNIFICANT development in the fight against climate change, the British Labour Party has committed itself to zero carbon emissions by 2030. It has also voted to nationalise Britain's six largest energy companies.

Labour's target of carbon neutrality by 2030 is twenty years earlier than the Conservative government. It is also twenty years earlier than what the New Zealand Labour-led government are proposing.

Environment groups have welcomed the decision with Greenpeace saying that although the target would not be easy to meet, 'missing the target by a few years, or even a decade, is still a far better outcome than hitting the government’s 2050 target, which is dangerously late'.

The new decarbonisation target is part of Labour for a Green New Deal's policy package to increase social and economic justice , and which was adopted in full by the conference. Labour's biggest union backers have also thrown their weight behind the Green New Deal.

It commits Labour to aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, nationalisation of the big six energy companies, the guarantee of new good unionised jobs as part of a worker-led just transition, free or affordable integrated green public transport, and support for the Global South and climate refugees.

Lauren Townsend, trade unionist and spokesperson for Labour for a Green New Deal, told the conference:

“Environmental breakdown is a class issue which requires working class solutions. The Labour movement has voted to take leadership on the climate emergency with a response which puts people and planet before profit. Now the ambition has been set, it is time for our movement to come together to build a Green New Deal from the ground up in every town, village and city.”