How to win votes: manifesto recommendations for a greener, fairer society

Greenpeace's recommendations provide a minimum standard for an election manifesto that properly responds to the climate and nature emergencies.

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Change for the better

Greenpeace has launched Project Climate Vote. We’re recruiting one million Climate Voters from all over the UK in time for the next general election. Our goal? To spark a race to the top where the major parties strive to be the best on climate and nature action, to create a record number of MPs with stronger climate policies in the next parliament and to build a powerful new movement of Climate Voters ready to hold the next government to its promises.

The incoming government will be in power for the period that will make or break our chances of keeping global temperatures within relatively safe levels and reversing the destruction of our natural world. With record-breaking temperatures, wildfires, droughts and mass crop failures now commonplace around the world, we simply don’t have time to waste. The next government must hit the ground running – implementing robust policies and harnessing billions in green investment to set the UK on track to meeting our climate targets while tackling the cost of living crisis and boosting the economy.

Setting a standard for manifestos

From now until the election, Greenpeace will be analysing Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP and Green Party commitments on climate and nature. We will rank manifestos for all voters to see and understand, as we have done for previous elections.

Our key recommendations in this briefing set out a minimum standard for election manifestos that properly respond to the climate and nature emergencies, are embedded in democracy and fairness and include showing leadership on our existing international commitments. Given that a strong majority of people in this country are worried about the climate emergency and want their government to act on it, committing to the policies below is an opportunity for parties not only to do the right thing, but also to win votes. And making these pledges will also help tackle many other issues that are front of mind for voters. Fixing our draughty homes and supporting renewables means affordable bills, a safer climate and creating jobs. Stopping new fossil fuels and destructive industrial fishing and farming means less extreme weather, less food insecurity, safer water supplies and less pressure on the NHS. Cheaper, better public transport leads to safer, quieter streets, cleaner air, and wider job opportunities, especially for young people. And a major programme to support clean industries and force polluting businesses and banks to align with climate and nature goals could help the UK keep up with the green technology race which is gaining pace globally, especially in the US, EU and China.

While we are already out speaking with potential climate voters on the streets, ready for millions of conversations and new recruits, we welcome conversations with party representatives and advisors between now and the election to discuss these recommendations.

 rebecca.newsom@greenpeace.org

Methodology

Greenpeace’s full election recommendations in this briefing total 45 core areas and are split across nine key sections, with five main pledges in each (subject to change depending on technical and scientific developments).

In any analysis between now and the election, we will award parties with one point for every policy commitment they make that matches the ambition within each of the 45 core recommendations (with partial points for partial commitments). Each of the nine sections also includes extra recommendations worth bonus points of 0.25 of each. So the maximum points a party could achieve is 52. Additional policy documents, or supporting information submitted to us by email, to be made publicly available, will be taken into consideration alongside official manifestos when we assess party policies.

1. Fix the UK’s draughty homes and provide cost of living support

  • Energy efficiency: Invest at least £6bn of public funds annually over 10 years to deliver a national home retrofit programme (and provide a fair split for devolved nations); and introduce regulations to increase the energy efficiency of private rented-sector homes and social housing to at least Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C rating by 2028 and fuel poor homes by 2030, and to at least EPC B for non-residential buildings by 2030.
  • Electrify heating: Invest a further £2.5bn a year (on average, though rising through the Parliament) on heat pumps next parliament (providing a fair split for devolved nations), in order to fit at least 900,000 heat pumps a year by 2028; and rule out all use of blue hydrogen for building heating.
  • New buildings: Implement and enforce the existing Future Homes Standard from 2025, and introduce regulations for all new buildings to meet net zero energy for all uses by 2030.
  • Quality control: Establish and sufficiently fund a new Warm Homes Agency to provide market confidence, independent advice to householders, and encourage private investment by advising on, supporting, enforcing and guaranteeing the delivery of installed measures, targets and regulations for building efficiency and low carbon heating.
  • Cost of living support: Introduce a comprehensive cost of living package, including the immediate introduction of a social tariff, restoring real public sector pay to 2019/20 levels and raising benefits at least in line with inflation.

Extra recommendations

  • End the installation of new gas boilers by 2033 and require boiler manufacturers to shift production to heat pumps on the same timeframe.
  • Keep levy costs off electricity bills permanently and cover the costs through general taxation, or shift to fossil heating fuels while guaranteeing costs are not unfairly passed onto lower income consumers.

2. Power the UK with green home-grown energy

  • Fossil fuels: Commit to an immediate end to all new planning permissions, licences and permits for onshore and offshore fossil fuels; significantly increase UK taxes on oil and gas companies to help support workers and communities with the climate transition and climate impacts at home and abroad; and rule out carbon capture and storage for fossil fuels and bioenergy.
  • Renewables: Commit to deliver at least 10-14GW of new renewables every year, including at least 5GW per year of offshore wind on average through the 2020s; remove unfair planning processes for onshore wind in England, introduce a mandate for solar on all new buildings; and provide £4bn of investment in ports and supply chains to support floating offshore wind.
  • Electricity grid: Fast-track the delivery of the offshore grid in harmony with nature, ensuring local communities benefit; drive investment in onshore transmission grid upgrades; require distribution network operators to deliver smart local operation and tailored upgrades to those networks where needed.
  • Green steel: Deliver a public-private partnership for green steel where the government covers the additional capital costs of conversion to electric arc furnaces or smelting using green hydrogen, and create a market for green steel. Use this as a template for greening the industrial sector more widely.
  • Nuclear and biomass: Commit to no new nuclear; and redirect subsidies for biomass to genuinely non-emitting and renewable energy sources that are at the very least not in competition with nature restoration (and where possible helping to enhance nature and food production).

Extra recommendations

  • Commit to achieving electricity grid decarbonisation well before 2035.
  • Ensure CfD support reflects supply chain inflation in the renewables sector (including changes to the administrative price caps) and costs imposed by the Electricity Generator Levy.
  • Support the development and route to market of a green electricity storage industry, including hydrogen made locally and using renewable energy, and other new technologies like liquid air and hot bricks, through providing financial support and regulation, including market guarantees – such as ‘cap-and-collar’ contracts for new pumped storage projects
  • Rapidly cease coal mining in the UK and commit to a wider phase-out of the extraction of oil and gas.
  • Rapidly clarify roles and responsibilities for delivery of an upgraded electricity system between the system operator, Ofgem, network owners and government.

3. Make sustainable travel more accessible for all, clean our air and protect our health

  • Electric vehicles and batteries: Recommit to phasing out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and ban diesel HGVs before 2040. Alongside this, generate investment for 10 gigafactories by 2040, prioritising locating them in deindustrialised areas; increase the funding and mandate for local authorities to roll out charging infrastructure, with special focus on areas with no off-street parking; require charging points in car parks; and ensure adequate investment in the ultra-fast charging network, including power supply, on the motorway network.
  • Clean up toxic air: Commit to bring UK air quality limits in line with World Health Organisation levels; scrap new road building; set a target to cut car miles by 25% by 2030 with a delivery plan within 12 months; roll out well designed low-traffic neighbourhoods in more towns and cities; and introduce clean air zones in polluted urban areas where local authorities are unable to identify alternative measures that would achieve compliance as quickly with statutory NO2 limit values.
  • Boost public transport and active travel provision: Provide at least £8bn a year additional public investment in low carbon public transport infrastructure across the UK – including £2bn a year to expand cycling and walking infrastructure (and equivalent funding for devolved nations), and at least £6bn/ year to expand and electrify local and regional bus and train services; restore routes that were cut, and switch buses and coaches to zero emission power. This should be complemented by nationalising the railway system, demanding greater efficiency and more frequent and reliable standards of service.

Extra recommendations

  • Establish a cross-party commission to reform transport taxation.
  • Reduce tax for use of public charge points to 5% VAT, to make it equivalent to home charging, rather than the current 20%.
  • Introduce taxes on kerosene.
  • Advocate for equitably designed international taxes on shipping and aviation fuels.

4. Champion a global just transition and support less developed countries facing climate impacts

  • Global fossil fuel phase out: Actively advocate for global agreement under the UNFCCC to end all fossil fuel expansion, phaseout all fossil fuels (abated and unabated) and support a just transition to renewables, with the richest, most historically polluting countries moving fastest; and withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty.
  • Climate finance: Maintain the UK’s existing commitment to climate finance of £11.6bn over the five year period of 2021/22 to 2025/26, ensuring all funds are provided from genuinely new and additional sources, and not derived from the international aid or development budgets. Provide significant new and additional sources of public finance beyond that period, to build momentum and trust in relation to the new climate finance goal that will be agreed at COP29.
  • Loss and damage: Support the set-up of the new Loss and Damage Fund under UNFCCC, and commit to the UK paying its fair share of new finance into it – drawing at least in part from funds raised through new taxes to ensure polluting companies, in particular fossil fuel companies, pay towards loss and damage.
  • Financial sector: Give financial regulators a new statutory objective to align the financial system with the 1.5°C goal in the Paris Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework.
  • Aid budget: Immediately restore and maintain the budget for Official Development Assistance to 0.7% of Gross National Income.

Extra recommendations

  • Commit to delivering the UK’s emissions-reduction commitments at source rather than through offsetting or unproven carbon removal techniques.
  • Ban all voluntary carbon markets.

5. Tackle environmental pollution, protect nature and uphold standards

  • Waste: Set legal targets to eliminate non-essential single-use packaging by the late 2030s and a 30% reuse target by 2030 within a framework of overall reduction. Deliver at least 70% recycling of all household waste by 2030; commit to a complete ban on all plastic waste exports by 2027 at the latest; and end approvals for new incineration facilities.
  • Water quality: Set legal targets for eliminating sewage spills in ecologically sensitive areas and designated bathing waters by 2030; and kick-start investment in sewage system infrastructure through banning water company shareholder dividends and bonus payments, and making £46bn of additional public funds available for the upgrades over the next parliament, while taking a government share in water companies and protecting consumers from excessive bill increases.
  • Stop companies polluting: Establish a Nature Recovery Obligation for the private sector, mandating key sectors to disclose their impacts on nature and publish Nature Positive Plans, integrated with 1.5°C climate and Global Biodiversity Framework aligned transition planning, setting out how operations will make a positive contribution to nature’s recovery, without relying on offsets.
  • National Nature Service and fund: Establish a new capital fund with at least £2bn public money over the next Parliament to pay for habitat restoration at scale and establish a National Nature Service, providing a paid work and training programme to equip people with habitat restoration skills.
  • Regulators with teeth: Significantly increase funding for regulatory compliance (to at least 2010 levels in real terms) and powers of environmental regulatory and delivery bodies so they have the resources and skills to enforce standards.

Extra recommendations

  • Introduce a new human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment into UK law.
  • Support a Scottish-style Right to Roam across the whole of the UK, extending public access to woodlands, rivers and green rural spaces.
  • Immediately implement an all-in Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for recycling and reuse.
  • Immediately implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements and ensure they are designed to increase reuse and reduction of packaging as well as recyclability.
  • Introduce an incineration tax.
  • Do not scrap the fundamental protections for nature provided by the Habitats Regulations.

6. Create a more resilient, fair food system and restore nature

  • Restore nature: Commit to reverse the decline of wild species by 2030 and fully or highly protect at least 30% of UK land and oceans by 2030; introduce new incentives and obligations for landowners to manage protected sites better for nature; introduce a new “Public Nature Estate” duty on public bodies to restore habitats in land they own and sea they manage; and enforce existing peat burning ban and extend it to cover all peatlands.
  • Fishing: Make a binding commitment not to allow fishing above scientifically recommended sustainable levels; immediately ban all industrial fishing in Marine Protected Areas through applying vessel licence conditions, and allocate fishing opportunities on the basis of environmental, social and local economic criteria.
  • Farming: Set a target for the vast majority of agricultural land to be under agro-ecological farming by 2030; double the budget for agroecological farming and land management to at least £6bn a year, with no delay to the roll-out of new farm payment systems delivering on the principle of public money for public goods; provide grants and loans for small and tenant farmers and growers struggling with energy price hikes; and set a statutory target to reduce pesticide use and risk by at least 50% by 2030.
  • Meat and dairy: Ban new or expanding factory farms; set an absolute target to reduce meat and dairy consumption by 70% by 2030; support the development of alternative proteins without increasing feed crop land; and use government procurement to support more healthy, flexitarian and plant-based diets.
  • Prioritise food for people and tackle food waste: Feed livestock on food sources unsuitable for humans; grow crops on arable land directly for people; revise rules so food waste can become animal feed; and introduce mandatory food waste public reporting for all medium and large food sector businesses.

Extra recommendations

  • Ensure any replacement of the Environmental Assessment regime is subject to full parliamentary scrutiny, improves environmental protections, includes all direct and indirect impacts on nature and climate change, and is rooted in primary legislation.
  • Create new purposes, powers and funding to recover nature in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
  • Provide funds for a publicly-owned agricultural extension service to support a skills and supply chain transition away from high, costly agricultural inputs towards agro-ecological methods; and enforce the legal right to access land for allotments for people to grow their own food.

7. Show leadership on nature protection and environmental rights abroad

  • Global oceans: Guarantee immediate ratification of the new UN Global Ocean Treaty (if not already completed before the election); advocate for the establishment of a network of ocean sanctuaries covering at least 30% of global oceans by 2030, including the Sargasso Sea as part of the first set of designations under the treaty; and support a ban or moratorium on deep sea mining.
  • Global plastic pollution: Support an ambitious UN Global Plastic Treaty to phase out virgin plastic production; end single-use plastic; end pollution across the whole lifespan of plastic; and support a just and inclusive transition to a low-carbon, zero-waste, reuse-based economy, standing up to the vested interests in the petro-chemical industry
  • Corporate due diligence: Tackle both illegal and legal deforestation in supply chains by tightening and extending existing due diligence obligations in the Environment Act, requiring UK companies to carry out due diligence in order to prevent all environmental damage and human rights’ abuses in their supply chains.
  • Trade: Ensure all new trade deals are negotiated transparently, with public and parliamentary scrutiny, and reject any new trade deals which do not maintain or enhance  climate, environmental and food and farming standards and human rights obligations.
  • Indigenous rights: Uphold and be a champion for Indigenous Peoples‘ rights and land rights in all domestic policy and international fora.

Extra recommendations

  • Commit £50m over the next parliament to fund the Blue Belt Programme to protect the waters of UK Overseas Territories, and strengthen protection for the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected areas.
  • Eliminate imports of animal feed driving deforestation.
  • Introduce Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms, in collaboration with the EU, channelling revenues to decarbonisation both at home and abroad, including ensuring it is implemented so as to not unfairly penalise the Least Developed Countries.

8. Guarantee democracy and human rights

  • Legislation: Revoke the Public Order Act, while still ensuring legislative measures are in place to support buffer zones to protect women using abortion clinics from harassment; revoke the Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023; and revoke the Police, Courts and Sentencing Act.
  • Elections: Significantly revise the Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 to remove the chilling effect on civil society campaigning in the context of elections; and scrap voter ID.
  • Human rights: Safeguard the Human Rights Act and the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.
  • Refugees: Adopt an actively welcoming policy towards refugees and people displaced by environmental disasters and the climate crisis – including adopting a safe and legal environmental visa scheme and a legal right to stay; and repeal the Illegal Migration Act.
  • Local authorities: Increase long-term funding, powers and flexibility for councils and metro mayors in England so that they can deliver climate and nature goals and better involve local people in policy design and delivery.

Extra recommendations

  • Guarantee the independence of the Electoral Commission – rather than bringing it under the control of government by repealing the sections of the Elections Act 2022 which allow government to direct the Commission.
  • Commit to integrating Citizens’ Assemblies into political decision-making – including a commitment to delivering on the recommendations of the assemblies or the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition publicly justifying why they are not choosing to incorporate them in their parties’ policies, via dedicated select committee scrutiny in parliament.

9. Make the economy work for everyone and ensure a fair transition

  • Tax reform: Commit to raising wealth and property taxes on the super-rich, for example the richest 1% of Britons with a total wealth of £2.8tn, to tackle inequality and fund the measures needed to ensure the green transition is fair for everyone.
  • Fiscal rules: Reform fiscal rules from the first year of a new government to allow borrowing on the scale needed for growth-generating green investment.
  • Quality jobs: Introduce regulation on industries to ensure job security, good working conditions and living wages.
  • Just transition and trade unions: Revoke the anti-strikes legislation and the Trade Union Act 2016; and lead a just transition strategy, in collaboration with empowered local authorities, businesses, workers, their unions and other relevant stakeholders.
  • Skills and job creation: Provide a minimum of £4bn a year to aid skills development, retraining and local investment; and increase obligations on green industry, such as renewables and heat pumps, to grow supply chains and guarantee more good quality, secure UK jobs.

Extra recommendations

  • Streamline training to enable certified workers to move across easily from existing polluting industries such as offshore oil and gas to offshore wind or decommissioning.

 rebecca.newsom@greenpeace.org