Activist Greta Thunberg has criticised governments at the UN climate talks for avoiding taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In a speech at the COP25 talks in Madrid, Spain, the Swedish teenager, who inspired the worldwide school strikes for climate movement, said: “Our leaders are not behaving as if we are in an emergency.”

She said the science showed that, at the current rate of emissions, the world is set to use up the whole “carbon budget” – the amount of pollution that can be put into the atmosphere and still keep global warming to 1.5C – in eight years.

Loss

Countries previously committed to curbing global warming at “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to keep temperature rises to 1.5C in the Paris Agreement secured in 2015.

Governments meeting at the talks are now under pressure to take more ambitious action to cut greenhouse gases, which continue to rise, to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Greta warned that “even at 1C people are dying from the climate crisis” and the science showed that going beyond 1.5C risks destabilising the climate and hitting irreversible tipping points such as melting glaciers and permafrost.

She said: “Finding holistic solutions is what the COP should be all about, but instead it seems to have turned some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.

“Countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action, like double-counting emissions reductions, and moving emissions overseas, and walking back on their promises to increase ambitions, or refusing to pay for solutions or loss and damage.

“This has to stop.”

Budget

Greta, who sailed across the Atlantic to attend the talks in Chile, before having to sail back again because they were moved to Spain due to civil unrest in the South American country, has made a series of hard-hitting speeches at international events in the past year.

In her latest talk, she focused on the science and the “misleading” behaviour of politicians and big business.

She said countries which had committed to reducing their emissions to zero by a certain date, as the UK has done with its legally binding pledge for net-zero by 2050, appeared impressive at first glance.

But “this is not leading, this is misleading”, she said, warning that the targets did not include aviation and shipping, or the emissions created by goods made in other countries and imported – and did include “offsetting” emissions.

“Zero by 2050 means nothing if high emissions continue for even a few years. Then the remaining budget will be gone.”

We the people

She said real, drastic emissions cuts were needed, and carbon had to stay in the ground to keep temperature rises below 1.5C.

And she warned: “The biggest danger is not inaction; the real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR.”

She finished her speech on a more hopeful note, telling delegates: “In just three weeks we will enter a new decade, a decade that will define our future.

“Right now we are desperate for any sign of hope. There is hope – I’ve seen it – but it does not come from the governments or corporations, it comes from the people. The people who have been unaware are now starting to wake up.”

She said people have democracy – all the time, not just at elections – and that public opinion runs the free world.

The teenage activist, who began the climate strikes with a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018, said: “Every great change in history comes from the people. We can start the change right now, we the people.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Extinction Rebellion UK were in Staffordshire last night buzzing around the Boris Johnson’s campaign bus and asking why his Conservative government has refused to answer questions about the climate and ecological emergency.

Eight people – five of them dressed as bees as part of our ‘Bee-yond Politics’ actions – blocked the Conservative battle bus, with three people glued to the bus at the JCB factory in Burton, Staffordshire. Despite heavy rainfall, Extinction Rebellion activists are asking: where has the government been hiding this #ClimateElection?

In this election campaign, the Conservative and the Brexit Party have been equally absent from the climate debate: refusing to meet with Extinction Rebellion hunger strikers sitting outside the Conservative HQs – now on their twenty-third day without food – and not attending climate hustings.

Vote

To date, Conservative parliamentary candidates have declined 70 invitations to attend climate hustings, including Boris Johnson avoiding the Channel 4 climate debate, and the Science Minister, Chris Skidmore, failing to show up in his constituency of Kingswood. 

James Moulding of Extinction Rebellion’s Political Circle, said: “So far during the general election campaign, the Conservatives have refused to engage in the climate debate.

“There is an evident theme taking place, with the prime minister repeatedly avoiding difficult conversations around this issue. We cannot allow the current governing party to continue to ignore the most pressing crisis of our time.”

An Extinction Rebellion press statement said: “Our current government is failing to meet both the current challenge of the ecological emergency and to prevent future disaster.

“Extinction Rebellion does not endorse candidates or parties, but we call out reckless inaction when we see it. The track record of the Conservative government speaks for itself, with Conservative MPs five times more likely to vote against climate action.

Emergency

“With the Government backtracking on climate-positive decisions such as cancelling fracking, and research showing that supporters of climate science denial donate predominantly to the Conservative Party and Tory politicians, we demand they answer voters questions about the most pressing issue of our time.”

Last week, Extinction Rebellion bees from around the UK managed to splat three party battle buses – The Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and the Brexit Party.

Extinction Rebellion said that campaigners have have struggled to find the Conservative bus – until now. It turns out any careful search by road has been in vain as the Prime Minister has been travelling the country in private jets, throwing our mission off course. 

And now, as Extinction Rebellion continues buzzing around the campaign trail in search of answers, the question remains: why have the party of government been hiding from this issue?

Bethany Mogie of Extinction Rebellion UK said: “No one can hide from the climate and ecological emergency forever.

Engage

“As towns in Yorkshire and the Midlands are devastated by flooding, and dangerous levels of air pollution in our cities remain a serious health risk, it is only right to ask the Conservative Party what their plan is to avert this disaster.

“If they are not willing to engage with this debate now then why should we expect them to if re-elected on Thursday?”

Extinction Rebellion UK has been urging all candidates to sign up to the Three Demands Bill and prove to the public that the climate and ecological emergency is the top priority this election during its campaign, 12 Days of Crisis.  More than 100 candidates have signed up so far – but only one is from the Conservative party.

The Extinction Rebellion press statement concluded: “Who forms the next government is critical to our chances of mitigating the worst effects of this emergency and building resilience for our communities.

“We are vulnerable to the effects of the crisis now. Whether it’s the threat of food shortages, overburdened public services or extreme weather, by the next election the climate and ecological emergency will be impossible to ignore. After nine years of burying their heads in the sand about the issue, we must make the Conservatives engage now.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Extinction Rebellion. 

Activist Greta Thunberg has criticised governments at the UN climate talks for avoiding taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In a speech at the COP25 talks in Madrid, Spain, the Swedish teenager, who inspired the worldwide school strikes for climate movement, said: “Our leaders are not behaving as if we are in an emergency.”

She said the science showed that, at the current rate of emissions, the world is set to use up the whole “carbon budget” – the amount of pollution that can be put into the atmosphere and still keep global warming to 1.5C – in eight years.

Loss

Countries previously committed to curbing global warming at “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to keep temperature rises to 1.5C in the Paris Agreement secured in 2015.

Governments meeting at the talks are now under pressure to take more ambitious action to cut greenhouse gases, which continue to rise, to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Greta warned that “even at 1C people are dying from the climate crisis” and the science showed that going beyond 1.5C risks destabilising the climate and hitting irreversible tipping points such as melting glaciers and permafrost.

She said: “Finding holistic solutions is what the COP should be all about, but instead it seems to have turned some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.

“Countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action, like double-counting emissions reductions, and moving emissions overseas, and walking back on their promises to increase ambitions, or refusing to pay for solutions or loss and damage.

“This has to stop.”

Budget

Greta, who sailed across the Atlantic to attend the talks in Chile, before having to sail back again because they were moved to Spain due to civil unrest in the South American country, has made a series of hard-hitting speeches at international events in the past year.

In her latest talk, she focused on the science and the “misleading” behaviour of politicians and big business.

She said countries which had committed to reducing their emissions to zero by a certain date, as the UK has done with its legally binding pledge for net-zero by 2050, appeared impressive at first glance.

But “this is not leading, this is misleading”, she said, warning that the targets did not include aviation and shipping, or the emissions created by goods made in other countries and imported – and did include “offsetting” emissions.

“Zero by 2050 means nothing if high emissions continue for even a few years. Then the remaining budget will be gone.”

We the people

She said real, drastic emissions cuts were needed, and carbon had to stay in the ground to keep temperature rises below 1.5C.

And she warned: “The biggest danger is not inaction; the real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR.”

She finished her speech on a more hopeful note, telling delegates: “In just three weeks we will enter a new decade, a decade that will define our future.

“Right now we are desperate for any sign of hope. There is hope – I’ve seen it – but it does not come from the governments or corporations, it comes from the people. The people who have been unaware are now starting to wake up.”

She said people have democracy – all the time, not just at elections – and that public opinion runs the free world.

The teenage activist, who began the climate strikes with a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018, said: “Every great change in history comes from the people. We can start the change right now, we the people.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Extinction Rebellion UK were in Staffordshire last night buzzing around the Boris Johnson’s campaign bus and asking why his Conservative government has refused to answer questions about the climate and ecological emergency.

Eight people – five of them dressed as bees as part of our ‘Bee-yond Politics’ actions – blocked the Conservative battle bus, with three people glued to the bus at the JCB factory in Burton, Staffordshire. Despite heavy rainfall, Extinction Rebellion activists are asking: where has the government been hiding this #ClimateElection?

In this election campaign, the Conservative and the Brexit Party have been equally absent from the climate debate: refusing to meet with Extinction Rebellion hunger strikers sitting outside the Conservative HQs – now on their twenty-third day without food – and not attending climate hustings.

Vote

To date, Conservative parliamentary candidates have declined 70 invitations to attend climate hustings, including Boris Johnson avoiding the Channel 4 climate debate, and the Science Minister, Chris Skidmore, failing to show up in his constituency of Kingswood. 

James Moulding of Extinction Rebellion’s Political Circle, said: “So far during the general election campaign, the Conservatives have refused to engage in the climate debate.

“There is an evident theme taking place, with the prime minister repeatedly avoiding difficult conversations around this issue. We cannot allow the current governing party to continue to ignore the most pressing crisis of our time.”

An Extinction Rebellion press statement said: “Our current government is failing to meet both the current challenge of the ecological emergency and to prevent future disaster.

“Extinction Rebellion does not endorse candidates or parties, but we call out reckless inaction when we see it. The track record of the Conservative government speaks for itself, with Conservative MPs five times more likely to vote against climate action.

Emergency

“With the Government backtracking on climate-positive decisions such as cancelling fracking, and research showing that supporters of climate science denial donate predominantly to the Conservative Party and Tory politicians, we demand they answer voters questions about the most pressing issue of our time.”

Last week, Extinction Rebellion bees from around the UK managed to splat three party battle buses – The Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and the Brexit Party.

Extinction Rebellion said that campaigners have have struggled to find the Conservative bus – until now. It turns out any careful search by road has been in vain as the Prime Minister has been travelling the country in private jets, throwing our mission off course. 

And now, as Extinction Rebellion continues buzzing around the campaign trail in search of answers, the question remains: why have the party of government been hiding from this issue?

Bethany Mogie of Extinction Rebellion UK said: “No one can hide from the climate and ecological emergency forever.

Engage

“As towns in Yorkshire and the Midlands are devastated by flooding, and dangerous levels of air pollution in our cities remain a serious health risk, it is only right to ask the Conservative Party what their plan is to avert this disaster.

“If they are not willing to engage with this debate now then why should we expect them to if re-elected on Thursday?”

Extinction Rebellion UK has been urging all candidates to sign up to the Three Demands Bill and prove to the public that the climate and ecological emergency is the top priority this election during its campaign, 12 Days of Crisis.  More than 100 candidates have signed up so far – but only one is from the Conservative party.

The Extinction Rebellion press statement concluded: “Who forms the next government is critical to our chances of mitigating the worst effects of this emergency and building resilience for our communities.

“We are vulnerable to the effects of the crisis now. Whether it’s the threat of food shortages, overburdened public services or extreme weather, by the next election the climate and ecological emergency will be impossible to ignore. After nine years of burying their heads in the sand about the issue, we must make the Conservatives engage now.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Extinction Rebellion. 

Activist Greta Thunberg has criticised governments at the UN climate talks for avoiding taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In a speech at the COP25 talks in Madrid, Spain, the Swedish teenager, who inspired the worldwide school strikes for climate movement, said: “Our leaders are not behaving as if we are in an emergency.”

She said the science showed that, at the current rate of emissions, the world is set to use up the whole “carbon budget” – the amount of pollution that can be put into the atmosphere and still keep global warming to 1.5C – in eight years.

Loss

Countries previously committed to curbing global warming at “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to keep temperature rises to 1.5C in the Paris Agreement secured in 2015.

Governments meeting at the talks are now under pressure to take more ambitious action to cut greenhouse gases, which continue to rise, to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Greta warned that “even at 1C people are dying from the climate crisis” and the science showed that going beyond 1.5C risks destabilising the climate and hitting irreversible tipping points such as melting glaciers and permafrost.

She said: “Finding holistic solutions is what the COP should be all about, but instead it seems to have turned some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.

“Countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action, like double-counting emissions reductions, and moving emissions overseas, and walking back on their promises to increase ambitions, or refusing to pay for solutions or loss and damage.

“This has to stop.”

Budget

Greta, who sailed across the Atlantic to attend the talks in Chile, before having to sail back again because they were moved to Spain due to civil unrest in the South American country, has made a series of hard-hitting speeches at international events in the past year.

In her latest talk, she focused on the science and the “misleading” behaviour of politicians and big business.

She said countries which had committed to reducing their emissions to zero by a certain date, as the UK has done with its legally binding pledge for net-zero by 2050, appeared impressive at first glance.

But “this is not leading, this is misleading”, she said, warning that the targets did not include aviation and shipping, or the emissions created by goods made in other countries and imported – and did include “offsetting” emissions.

“Zero by 2050 means nothing if high emissions continue for even a few years. Then the remaining budget will be gone.”

We the people

She said real, drastic emissions cuts were needed, and carbon had to stay in the ground to keep temperature rises below 1.5C.

And she warned: “The biggest danger is not inaction; the real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR.”

She finished her speech on a more hopeful note, telling delegates: “In just three weeks we will enter a new decade, a decade that will define our future.

“Right now we are desperate for any sign of hope. There is hope – I’ve seen it – but it does not come from the governments or corporations, it comes from the people. The people who have been unaware are now starting to wake up.”

She said people have democracy – all the time, not just at elections – and that public opinion runs the free world.

The teenage activist, who began the climate strikes with a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018, said: “Every great change in history comes from the people. We can start the change right now, we the people.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Activist Greta Thunberg has criticised governments at the UN climate talks for avoiding taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In a speech at the COP25 talks in Madrid, Spain, the Swedish teenager, who inspired the worldwide school strikes for climate movement, said: “Our leaders are not behaving as if we are in an emergency.”

She said the science showed that, at the current rate of emissions, the world is set to use up the whole “carbon budget” – the amount of pollution that can be put into the atmosphere and still keep global warming to 1.5C – in eight years.

Loss

Countries previously committed to curbing global warming at “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to keep temperature rises to 1.5C in the Paris Agreement secured in 2015.

Governments meeting at the talks are now under pressure to take more ambitious action to cut greenhouse gases, which continue to rise, to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Greta warned that “even at 1C people are dying from the climate crisis” and the science showed that going beyond 1.5C risks destabilising the climate and hitting irreversible tipping points such as melting glaciers and permafrost.

She said: “Finding holistic solutions is what the COP should be all about, but instead it seems to have turned some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.

“Countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action, like double-counting emissions reductions, and moving emissions overseas, and walking back on their promises to increase ambitions, or refusing to pay for solutions or loss and damage.

“This has to stop.”

Budget

Greta, who sailed across the Atlantic to attend the talks in Chile, before having to sail back again because they were moved to Spain due to civil unrest in the South American country, has made a series of hard-hitting speeches at international events in the past year.

In her latest talk, she focused on the science and the “misleading” behaviour of politicians and big business.

She said countries which had committed to reducing their emissions to zero by a certain date, as the UK has done with its legally binding pledge for net-zero by 2050, appeared impressive at first glance.

But “this is not leading, this is misleading”, she said, warning that the targets did not include aviation and shipping, or the emissions created by goods made in other countries and imported – and did include “offsetting” emissions.

“Zero by 2050 means nothing if high emissions continue for even a few years. Then the remaining budget will be gone.”

We the people

She said real, drastic emissions cuts were needed, and carbon had to stay in the ground to keep temperature rises below 1.5C.

And she warned: “The biggest danger is not inaction; the real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR.”

She finished her speech on a more hopeful note, telling delegates: “In just three weeks we will enter a new decade, a decade that will define our future.

“Right now we are desperate for any sign of hope. There is hope – I’ve seen it – but it does not come from the governments or corporations, it comes from the people. The people who have been unaware are now starting to wake up.”

She said people have democracy – all the time, not just at elections – and that public opinion runs the free world.

The teenage activist, who began the climate strikes with a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018, said: “Every great change in history comes from the people. We can start the change right now, we the people.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Leading experts are calling for a major shift in the way climate change is discussed because the science of global warming has failed spectacularly to emotionally connect with much of society.

Instead of only talking about long-term threats, such as rising sea levels, Professor Aled Jones of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), and Will Steffen, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, believe significant change will only occur if the world focuses on more immediate threats to society.  

They explain how extreme weather events that are already happening could lead to catastrophic collapses in human-made systems, such as financial systems or global supply chains.

Vital changes

With the COP25 UN Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Madrid, they believe that vital changes to safeguard society both in the short and long-term will only occur if the voices of food security, migration and logistics experts are heard just as loudly as those of climate change scientists.

Professor Jones, director of the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), is a world expert in risks and opportunities derived from food, energy and water resource trends.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Jones and Professor Steffen say: “While climate scientists, policymakers and environmental campaigners have been engaged in a decades-long conversation about the future of the planet, most people on planet Earth see no climate emergency.

“This failure to connect the dots means humanity has rapidly entered uncharted territory, pumping out carbon 10 times faster than at any point since the extinction of the dinosaurs.

“So while climate scientists must continue to improve their understanding of a rapidly changing Earth system, what we really need now is to hear from experts who understand the human systems contained within, and how intertwined with the climate their fate is.

“The new story of our planetary emergency must highlight our vulnerability to near-term climate shocks, and offer a corresponding vision of a more urgent global response.”

Tipping points

Jones and Steffen continue: “Cascading tipping points in the Earth system – such as melting ice sheets and forest collapse – may be existential long-term threats. But we’re already causing increasingly extreme weather events that may soon become severe and frequent enough to cause what’s called ‘synchronous failure’.

“This is where multiple stresses across human-made systems lead to catastrophic collapses in their functioning. These collapses, given how interconnected our global system is, can affect one country directly but lead to the failure of our finance systems or global supply chains in many others.

“Above all, much more prominence must be given to experts in systems, food security, migration, energy transitions, supply chains and security, to develop our understanding of short-term responses within society.

“In particular, we need a better handle on how trigger events such as food price spikes, droughts or forest fires, overlay onto the most vulnerable and politically unstable countries.

“In the future, food shocks are likely to get much worse. The risk of multi-breadbasket failure is increasing, and rises much faster beyond 1.5c of global heating – a threshold we could hit as early as 2030 should emissions continue unchecked.

“Such shocks pose grave threats – rocketing food prices, civil unrest, major financial losses, starvation and death.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Anglia Ruskin University. 

Campaigners will challenge the Department for International Trade in court on Thursday 12 December over its failure to release full details of dozens of post-Brexit trade talks. The hearing takes place on the day of the UK elections. 

The papers, including the redacted minutes of US-UK negotiations which became a major political issue during the General Election, were released to campaign group Global Justice Now in heavily redacted form earlier this year.

But campaigners claim the blacked out documents are an affront to democracy, arguing that the far-reaching implications of trade deals today necessitate high levels of transparency and scrutiny which the Government is blocking.

Trade meetings

The case, brought by Leigh Day and Brendan Montague, then director of Request Initiative and now editor of The Ecologist, on behalf of campaign group Global Justice Now, will attempt to force the Department for International Trade to release details of trade meetings which have taken place with 21 countries including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China and India.

Global Justice Now requested the papers under Freedom of Information law back in 2017, but the Government refused to release any information until an appeal to the Information Commissioner in March 2019 resulted in the release of hundreds of pages of documents.

They were either entirely or heavily redacted on the basis of a variety of exemptions, including the ‘extremely sensitive’ nature of international trade agreements.

Some of these redacted papers were held up by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the first General Election leaders debate. Leaked versions of the papers were later found to reveal that the NHS, British food standards, and the government’s ‘right to regulate’ could all be undermined by a trade deal with the US.

The campaigners will be represented on Thursday by Sam Fowles of Cornerstone Barristers.

Scrutiny

The challenge will be heard in the First-tier Tribunal, to be held at Field House, Breams Buildings, in London, on 12 and 13 December 2019.

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: “Trade deals are supposedly the number one benefit of Brexit, yet the government has fought tooth and nail to keep plans for them out of the public domain.

“In the case of the US deal, we now know why: because the US administration is pushing hard to gain greater access to our NHS, to push lower standard food on us post-Brexit, and to hamper our ability to tax and regulate giant Silicon Valley corporations.

“But we’ve only skimmed the surface of what’s out there. We also want to know what they’re discussing with a range of other countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China.

“In a democracy, we must have the right to scrutinise what our government is trading away in our name.”

Public interest

Brendan Montague said: “The public interest in this case could not be clearer, or more urgent. This speaks to the future of the NHS, the most important and most valued institution we have in this country.

“It also speaks to issues that impact on millions of people’s lives: climate change, food safety standards and pesticides.

“It now seems absolutely irrefutable that the public needs to be aware of what is being negotiated on their behalf, and also know whether politicians including Boris Johnson are telling the truth about what is being sold, and what is being protected, in negotiations with the US and other countries.”

Transparency 

Rowan Smith, human rights solicitor at Leigh Day, said: “Our clients have been fighting since 2017 for transparency in negotiations of post-Brexit trade agreements. We are arguing before the Information Tribunal that the Department for International Trade has wrongly assessed the public interest in transparency and the value of public scrutiny in these negotiations.

“It is seriously concerning that the public has to rely on leaks to have any real insight as to the kinds of deals being negotiated on their behalf. Parliament brought in the Freedom of Information Act precisely for this reason.

“Government departments should not be allowed to evade their obligations under this crucial Act.” 

This Author

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from Global Justice Now. 

The Green Party will write off existing debt of all former students who studied under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government’s exorbitant £9,000 tuition regime. 

The Greens would also fully fund every higher education student and scrap tuition fees for undergraduates, as part of its plans to ensure education is fully accessible and does not laden people with a lifetime of debt.

The plans, as laid out in the party’s ambitious and fully-costed manifesto, would also include increased funding for adult education, to be in line with training needed to implement the Green New Deal. 

Public good

The Green Party is the only party committed to writing off the debt for those who were forced to pay £9,000 each year to go to university after the coalition government tripled tuition fees in 2012. 

The Greens would also spend an additional £7.8bn per year on scrapping tuition fees for new graduates and restoring grants.

Green Party deputy leader Amelia Womack will announce the party’s higher education proposals in central London today [Tuesday 10 December].

Womack said: “Education is a public good, and we’re proud to invest in the next generation. That’s why the Green Party is committed to scrapping tuition fees.

“It makes me so angry that tuition fees were introduced by a Labour government which had benefited from free education themselves. Then the coalition government tripled fees, scrapped maintenance grants, and sold off the student loan book.

“The result is a generation of young people saddled with mountains of debt as they start out in life. So yes, we say education should be free, for life, for everyone.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from The Green Party UK. 

The US has banned mention of climate change from trade talks that Trump’s administration has been holding with the UK.

Leaked documents show that the UK raised the issue of climate change only to be bluntly told it is off limits because it is too politically sensitive and a ‘lightening rod issue’.

The document state that the “UK inquired about the possibility of including reference to climate change in a future UK-US trade agreement given that the UK has a strong historical stance on climate change and pushed strongly for the Paris Agreement.

“UK also highlighted the pressure for this that would come from civil society and NGOs. US responded emphatically that climate change is the most political (sensitive) question for the US, stating it is a ‘lightning rod issue’, mentioning that as of 2015, USTR are bound by Congress not to include mention of greenhouse gas emission reductions in trade agreements. US stated this ban would not be lifted anytime soon.” 

Sabotaging policy

This pandering to climate change denial is completely unacceptable in the face of the climate emergency.

But beyond this, it’s good to be clear on what the connections between trade deal and climate change are. Otherwise it might not seem that important for climate to be on the trade agenda.

Trade deals can make the climate crisis worse, block climate action and undermine a just transition. Trade deals really matter if we are to have any chance of tackling the climate crisis.

Trade deals can increase both trade in fossil fuels themselves and in fossil fuel intensive sectors, thus increasing climate change emissions.

The failed EU-US trade negotiations, TTIP, had a chapter specifically on the energy trade, which aimed to increase trade in energy while outlawing discrimination between dirty fossil fuels and renewable energy. Campaigners at the time said it could sabotage climate policy.

Climate action

Last year, the EU agreed a very quick mini pact with Trump in an attempt to head of his threats of imposing heavy tariffs. It only covered two things, but those two things are both significant for the climate: gas and soybeans.

A fossil fuel, and a fossil fuel intensive crop. Soy is produced on mega plantations, often destroying rainforest and savannah in the process, with heavy use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers which are produced from fossil fuels.

Shipping goods around the world is itself currently a climate problem, as marine fuel oil is one of the dirtiest fossil fuels.

We know we must have strong, immediate action to tackle the climate crisis. After lost decades of inertia, we need binding regulation that can make real change happen.

But trade rules are written to promote voluntary self-regulation by industry – exactly the approach that has resulted in continued inaction and business as usual. Throughout the leaked papers from the US-UK trade talks, US officials keep insisting that they only want voluntary industry-led measures.

Corporate courts

Whenever actual regulation is mentioned in the leaked papers, the officials emphasise the need for big business to help write the rules. They are pushing for corporations to get early warning of any planned laws, which might mean big business could block proposals before they are even seen by parliament.

That’s not all. If laws and decisions are actually passed to take meaningful climate action, trade rules have another ace up their sleeve: corporate courts.

Formally known as ISDS, these allow transnational corporations to sue governments outside of the national courts, over decisions that they don’t like. The amounts involved can be massive, and the threat is real.

We’re already seeing this happen on climate. The Netherlands recently took the decision to phase out coal power in the light of climate change, and promptly a German energy company, Uniper, has started threatening to sue in a corporate court.

And in Canada, when the province of Quebec introduced a fracking moratorium, energy company Lone Pine sued in a case that is still ongoing.

Corporate courts should not exist. They are unjust and illegitimate, and should have no place in UK trade policy. Yet the leaked papers show it seems increasingly likely that they would be included in a US-UK trade deal.

System change

Tackling climate change will require a transformation of our economy and society – a system change. In a change of that scale, we need to ensure that those with least responsibility for the crisis are not the ones that end up paying for it.

Those on the frontlines of the crisis in the global south have contributed the least in terms of historic emissions, with responsibility lying in the global north. Part of balancing this debt should include transferring technologies to the global south to help tackle climate change, and supporting policies that can build a more sustainable future – a global green new deal.

Yet trade rules explicitly outlaw technology transfer, and try to limit the flexibility for governments to introduce the active industrial and developmental policies they need.

In the UK and elsewhere, we also need a just transition that provides decent jobs. Those who currently work in polluting industries should not be penalised – they need to be able to find good new jobs helping to make the transition happen and in new sustainable sectors.

To do this, governments need to be able target resources at communities that are likely to be affected. This could be by making it a condition for a company wanting to invest that they create jobs locally. But again, this is something trade rules say is not allowed.

Take action

Trade deals have teeth in international law. They override climate agreements, and currently they are a problem for climate action.

We need to change that. A throwaway reference to climate change in a deal does nothing. We need to fundamentally change the way trade deals are done so that they have climate justice at their core. And we also need to stop the trade deals that would make the climate crisis worse.

Take action and join our campaign to stop a US-UK trade deal.

This Author

Jean Blaylock is campaigns and policy manager at Global Justice Now.