Home     About     Current Elections     Past Elections     Campaign    Donate     Contact

United Kingdom National Election 2010

Policy Comparison

To view the comprehensive visual policy analysis click here

Voting Recommendations

Listed in order of preference.

1. Greens
2. Liberal Democrats
3. Conservatives
4. Labour
5. UK Independence Party

Election Details

• 6 May

UK Vote Climate Poster

• Vote Climate "Churchill" UK Poster Download Word DOC (0.15 MB)

Election Overview

Despite the ever increasing importance of acting on climate change and the failure of international talks last year at Copenhagen, climate change is not a lead issue at this years UK National Elections.

Even the Greens fail to mention the issue on their slick video based campaign website, instead focusing on health care, jobs and financial short falls.

All parties do tackle the issue, with the Greens, not surprisingly, having the strongest climate policies of any of the parties assessed.

No party goes far enough to propose policies that will actually prevent runaway climate change including the Greens, however the Greens are getting closer, with calls for 90% reductions in emissions by 2020, while both the Greens and the Liberal Democrats call for net zero emissions in the longer term.

The call for zero emissions misses the critical point that greenhouse gas emissions already released are strong enough to cause several critical climate stabilisation systems to pass their tipping points such the North Pole summer ice and the methane trapped in the Northern hemisphere's permafrost and start us on the road to a climate catastrophe. To deal with this we need negative emissions not zero emissions.

The major parties have focused their climate policies on energy production, with Labour embracing nuclear power as a low carbon solution, the conservatives saying they will look at its true cost before deciding whether to adopt it and strongly promoting coal power, while the the Liberal democrats rejecting both nuclear and coal.

Likewise all parties have focused to some degree on social equity issues relating to rising fuel bills, and all promoting some for of home energy efficiency package.

All parties claim to seek to improve public transport to some degree while reducing cost for the public use.

Policy and Parties - General Comments

The Greens

The Green have the strongest and most broad ranging climate policies of any party, however they have relegated the issue of climate change to the lower levels of their party website, and not mentioned it at all on their campaign website or as a key election policies (13/4).

It is very disappointing that in 2010 the Greens, who pride themselves as a party strong in social justice and environmental policy and action, give such little significance to the most important issue facing the planet today.

On the positive side the Greens are the only party Vote Climate has seen which directly tackles the issues of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, in particular the meat and dairy industries.

Methane reduction will be critical in producing a global cooling necessary to to reverse the collapse of many of our climate stabilising systems such as the north pole summer ice cover.

The Greens energy policy rejects nuclear and coal while supporting renewables. backed by a decentralised grid and energy efficiency initiatives. The Green seek to ensure all people can afford energy to power and heat their homes.

The Greens also have good policies on transport, oil peak, bio fuels, and a detailed policy on individual carbon allowances.

The issues of population is tackled from the perspective of birth rate, ignoring the issue of immigration which contributes around half of UK population increase. This is a common failing of left leaning parties who have difficulty calling for a reduction in immigration.

Importantly the Greens call for a reduction of 90% of 1990 level emissions by 2030, and net zero emissions in the longer term.

The Greens also have separate parties in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats put the environment and climate change as a key plank of their election campaign, with the issues featured strongly on the front page of their website. It is listed as the leading policy and backed up with additional detail in their policy motions and papers.

Their climate policy has a strong social justice focus, highlighting the need to provide affordable power to the poor and ensure both new and old houses are adequately insulated, while promoting green jobs to boost the economy.

Their energy policy is focused around support for small and large scale renewables, a rejection of nuclear power, closing coal fired powered stations in the longer term, and a goal of the UK to be 100% renewable by 2050, supported by a smart decentralised grid and smart metering.

Their long term greenhouse gas emissions target is net zero emissions, though there are contradictory statements as to whether this relates just to the energy sector or all emissions. Unfortunately they have also adopted the 2 degree target which is a political goal and nothing to do with preventing dangerous climate change.

The Liberal Democrats support both a carbon tax in the immediate term and carbon rationing in the longer term.

Their transport policy include a pollution tax in relation to planes, more rail lines and high speed trains.

People considering making a choice between the three main parties should choose Liberal Democrats over Labour and the Conservatives based on their climate policies.

Labour

Labour's climate policies are focused on energy and their past work on climate change, particularly in relation to the EU.

The emissions reduction targets are weak with goals of 34% redutuction by 2020 and 80% by 2040

They have fairly weak goals, and are supporters of nuclear power ignoring the vast government subsidies it needs to be provided to remain viable.

They support coal power and renewables, and have a green loan for home energy efficiency.

Labour talks about providing 400,000 "green" jobs which by their definition would include jobs in the nuclear industry.

Labour's track record while in government and current policies show no commitment to prevent runaway climate change.

Conservatives

The Conservatives claim to have a strong climate policy but support the nuclear industry and coal fired power stations.

The difference between them and Labour, is the Conservative claim that they will not subsidise nuclear power with government money. If this is the case we should see the nuclear industry fail in the UK, should the conservatives win as it has been shown that the nuclear industry is more expensive than renewables if full cost accounting is done including issues of paying for decommissioning, waste management and Governments limiting their liability incase of an accident. However elsewhere the Conservatives talk about "promoting nuclear power", so it seems that they may actually intend to push it as an option rather than just give it a fair hearing.

The Conservatives are big supporters of the coal industry promising to develop carbon capture and storage to allow coal to play a significant role in providing power for the UK.

At the same time the Conservatives are support small scale renewables, large off shore wind farms, smart metering and a smart grid which can better handle renewable energy.

On the energy efficiency side they are offering a green loan for home energy efficiency and will seek to reduce government energy use by 10% within a year.

The Conservatives are aware of the issues of peak oil and the high dependency the UK has on gas.

The Conservatives are proposing to build a high speed rail network in the UK, and support electric cars by promoting a recharging stations.

The conservatives also include some social justice issues in relation to energy costs, however in general their goals of 34% redutuction by 2020 and 80% by 2040 are weak and will not go far enough to reduce emissions to stop a runaway climate change event.

UK Independence Party

When I first looked at this party's website they were promoting the well know climate change denier Lord Monckton and a video claiming that climate change is not a problem for polar bears. The UK Independence Party clearly aligns itself as a party of climate deniers, and is acting a is mouth piece for nuclear and coal industries, with their polices of 50% nuclear power for the UK, and support for UK coal, while adopting an anti renewable stance.

The party's main focus is rejecting the concepts and policies of a European Union, rejecting multiculturalism, lowering tax, support for small government (accept for a very big defence budget and big nuclear program), being tough on crime, anti-wind farms and renewables, but pro electric transport.

They promoted themselves as the straight talking party while in fact they are full of spin, evidenced by their position on climate change and population growth. In the UKIP environment policy the party claims that "Recent rapid population growth in the UK is almost entirely due to immigration." (UKIP An Energy and Environment policy for an independent Britain), this is contradicted by figures from the UK Office for National Statistics which show that natural population growth is now exceeding immigration in the Uk as a driver for population increase. Take a look at recent UK population growth here.

If you care about the future of the planet, don't vote for these guys.

General Election Analysis

Check out the BBC 2010 Election website

Links to party websites: