Labour’s manifesto has been ranked most highly of any party on climate and nature policies – beating the Green Party into second place.
The Conservative Party’s election blueprint was in last place by far – because it lacks “significant commitments in numerous areas, inadequate policies in others, and actively damaging policies in transport.”
Friends of the Earth scored each party against ten areas including, climate targets, energy, transport, food and nature.
The manifestos were marked out of 45.
Labour scored best with 33 points. The Green Party were second with 31, the Lib Dems third on 30.
The Tories scored just 5.5 points out of 45.
Rebecca Long Bailey, Labour’s Shadow Energy Secretary, said: “Labour has the most ambitious programme to tackle the climate and environmental emergency of any political party, as confirmed by Friends of the Earth.”
(Image: Getty Images)
She added: “What sets Labour apart is that our plans have been developed with some of the country’s leading environmental scientists, economists and practitioners”
Dave Timms, Friends of the Earth’s head of political affairs, said: “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.
“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.”
He added: “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.”
