Defend Labour’s Socialist Green New Deal

From Labour List: Asked whether Labour backs a 2030 net-zero target, Keir Starmer’s (unnamed) spokesperson said: “The last manifesto made a number of really important commitments on this, which Keir supported, but we lost the election and Labour lost five years in government to tackle climate change.  “The next manifesto, the next target, will be written in four or five years’ time and we’ll have to deal with the circumstances we are in then.”

This sounds very much like backsliding. This should be a warning to all of us. The idea that Labour lost the 2019 election because we support a Green New Deal is ridiculous. Even Tory thinktanks are toying with the idea of a ‘green recovery’ from the present catastrophic slump. A Green New Deal links the imperatives of today: providing decent, useful work for the millions of jobless likely to be left behind by the developing capitalist crisis; with the necessities of the future – leaving a planet our children fit for our children to live in. This is more important than Parliamentary games!

Resist any attempt to water down Labour’s programme, particularly on the Green New Deal. It could be a big winner for us.

Responding to the comments of Starme’s nameless rep, Angus Satow of Labour for a Green New Deal said: “We strongly oppose the suggestion that Labour should abandon its vital, popular and groundbreaking climate programme because of our election defeat.

“With the Arctic on fire and unemployment soaring, the Green New Deal has never been more urgent. It’s not enough for Keir Starmer to delay this question until 2024 – he must fight for our programme, and our planet, now.”

Hear, hear.

Here is the Socialist Campaign group of MPs Statement on a Green New Deal

The recovery from Covid-19 must tackle the urgent climate crisis facing our planet. With the highest ever temperatures recorded in the Arctic Circle, we cannot delay in taking action to save our planet and future generations.

We believe that the necessary and urgent action must consider not only the historic responsibility of the UK in greenhouse gas emissions, but also the need for a just transition for workers employed in the energy industry.

Thanks to work of campaigners, trade union representatives of energy workers and others, since conference 2019 Labour Party policy includes:

International exchange of technology and expertise to support other countries’ transitions  

• A path to net zero by 2030

• A ban on fracking

• A just transition, based on public ownership of an integrated, democratic energy sector

• Free or affordable green public transport

• Ecological restoration to increase biodiversity

• Welcoming climate refugees

• Building and retrofitting social and council housing with low embedded carbon

We support the recommendations of Labour’s 2019 report ‘Thirty by 2030’, and the work of Labour for a Green New Deal in continuing to push for Labour conference policy to be made a reality, to save our planet for our children, and to fight for climate action to be at the heart of everything our country does as we rebuild after the coronavirus pandemic.

Diane Abbott MP
Tahir Ali MP
Paula Barker MP
Apsana Begum MP
Christine Blower
Pauline Bryan
Richard Burgon MP
Ian Byrne MP
Shami Chakrabarti
Jeremy Corbyn MP
John Hendy
Ian Lavery MP
Clive Lewis MP
John McDonnell MP
Ian Mearns MP
Graeme Morris MP
Kate Osamor MP
Kate Osborne MP
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Zarah Sultana MP
Jon Trickett MP
Claudia Webbe MP
Mick Whitley MP
Nadia Whittome MP

Below is the full text of ‘Composite 17’, Labour’s Socialist Green New Deal motion.

Conference notes:

To prevent the worst effects of climate change, we must keep global temperature rises below 1.5°C.

• Over 1°C of warming has taken place, causing floods, droughts, heatwaves, pollution, and hundreds of thousands of deaths. The poorest suffer most.

• Just 100 companies are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions; and the Conservative government is deregulating the fossil fuel industry and cutting support for renewables.

• Labour has supported the youth strikes for climate and Extinction Rebellion, pushing the climate emergency up the national agenda.

• The UK has accrued wealth since industrialisation through disproportionately high emissions, while the poor, the global south, and women suffer the greatest climate impacts. Domestically and internationally: Social, economic and gender justice is inextricable from climate justice.

• Combining decarbonisation with a progressive restructuring of the economy gives us the possibility to both create green jobs and fight the threat of climate chaos.

Conference believes:

• The cost of decarbonisation must be borne by the wealthiest not the poorest.

• Decarbonisation could produce thousands of well-paid, skilled jobs in renewables and the supply chain. This will be based on public ownership and democratic control.

• In a workers-led ‘just transition’ from high-emission jobs to alternatives; public investment guaranteeing communities and living standards.

• A Green New Deal is therefore now a demand we must make.

Conference therefore calls on the Labour Party to include a Green New Deal in the manifesto: a state-led programme of investment and regulation, based on public ownership and democratic control, for the decarbonisation and transformation of our economy that reduces inequality and pursues efforts to keep global average temperature rises below 1.5°C.

In power Labour will:
In collaboration with the trade unions and the scientific community, work towards a path to net zero carbon emissions by 2030, guaranteeing an increase in good unionised jobs in the UK, and the cost of which would be borne by the wealthiest not the majority; and implementing this target into law if it achieves a just transition for workers.
Introduce a complete ban on fracking.
Oversee a just transition, increasing the number of well-paid, unionised green jobs in the UK through:
• public ownership of energy, creating an integrated, democratic system;
• public ownership of the Big Six;
• large-scale investment in renewables and low-carbon energy.
Repeal all anti-union laws, facilitating worker-led activism over social and political issues, including climate change.
Address regional economic imbalances and areas of deprivation.
Ensure the costs of decarbonisation are borne by the wealthiest through progressive taxation, not working people and their families.
Take transport into public ownership and invest in expanded, integrated, free or affordable green public transport that connects Britain, including:
• rail electrification;
• continued support for high-speed rail, because of the additional capacity that it will createfor rail freight on the West Coast Mainline, removing polluting HGVs and other vehicles from roads;
• the transition to sustainably powered rail freight;
• creation of rail freight interchanges;
• community transport;
• investment in electric buses that can reconnect local communities;
• integrated public transport timetabling;
• local schemes that make walking and active travel safe, attractive, environmentally sustainable options, benchmarked against European practice;
• a radical car scrappage scheme to increase electric vehicles.
Tackle fuel poverty and assure everyone’s basic rights through the provision of universal services.
A radical programme to up skill the UK workforce to develop, manufacture and manage the greening of the UK.
Building and retrofitting of zero-carbon social and council housing and public buildings with lowest possible embedded carbon in construction.
Support developing countries’ climate transitions through free or cheap transfers of finance, technology and capacity.
Welcome climate refugees while taking measures against the displacement of peoples from their homes.
Promote the international exchange of technology, expertise, products, resources and services to learn from and help other countries achieve a Green New Deal.
Implement a programme of ecological restoration to increase biodiversity and natural carbon sequestration.
Measure and tackle consumption emissions, not just those produced on UK soil.
Work collaboratively with farmers to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector.
Press for heavy UN penalties on “ecocide” damage to climate sensitive habitats internationally.