Guest election blog – Labour by Mya Bambrick

I am a young naturalist, an ecology and wildlife conservation student at Bournemouth University, a nature writer, and wildlife content creator. I work with various conservation NGOs to engage young people with nature. Last year I was awarded the BTO’s Young Ornithologist of the Year.

Being 21, this is the first time I have voted in a general election. In prior local elections, I have voted for the Labour party. On the 4^{th of} July I’ll be voting in the Crawley constituency.

This is my review of, and my thoughts about, the environmental implications of the Labour Party election manifesto.

Things I like:

• Addressing climate and biodiversity crisis: Labour starts off the environmental chapter of their manifesto with a powerful statement ‘The climate and nature crisis is the greatest long-term global challenge that we face.’ The fact they are addressing that we are in both a climate and nature crisis is a strong start. All so often the focus is all on climate, despite how intertwined the two issues are and how vital it is to deliver action with both climate and biodiversity in mind.

• Big on green energy: Labour are putting a focus on being a green energy superpower, which is well needed. With promises of the publicly owned body ‘Great British Energy’ and clean power by 2030, it seems like this is relatively high on their agenda. I particularly like their emphasis of affordability, with their Warm Homes Plan and creating ‘650,000’ new green jobs whilst fighting the climate crisis. However, I do question if this will be enough, and whether they’ll scale back plans, as seen on their previous U-turn on a £28 billion-a-year green investment pledge.

• No new oil and gas exploration licenses: Their promise to end new oil and gas exploration licenses is very welcome. We cannot meet those targets of net zero by 2050 if we are continuing to exploit fossil fuels. However, I’m disappointed that there is no commitment to revoke licenses issued during the last parliament.

• Water companies: With only 15% of UK rivers in good ecological condition, we desperately need regulations that are stricter on water companies who pollute our rivers with untreated sewage. Although lacking detail, Labour commits to put ‘failing water companies under special measures’ and to ‘block the payment of bonuses to executives who pollute waterways,’ similarly to the Conservatives. Hopefully this will be enough to incentivise leaders to prevent environmental harm on our precious waterways. Although investment is severely needed in improving infrastructure which deals with our sewage, rather than profits ending up in the pockets of those high up.

• Expanding wetlands and peat bogs and forests on public land: It’s brilliant that they’ve mentioned both wetlands and peat bogs. These habitats act as excellent tools for climate resilience through sequestering carbon. Having lost ‘90%’ of our wetland habitats in the last 100 years and ‘80%’ of our peat bogs lost or damaged, it’s about time they got some limelight. This is what we need – an interlinked approach of boosting biodiversity whilst providing climate benefits.

• Land-use framework and ELMS: One of the most important tasks for the next government is to ensure we have an integrated and well-planned approach to how we use our finite amount of land. Being one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, a mention of this framework is a good step in ensuring there is space for nature, whilst providing climate solutions. Let’s hope within that framework some land is prioritised solely for nature – if they are to meet targets of 30% of land and sea protected for nature by 2030. With 70% of England being farmed, nature-friendly agriculture is a must to ensure our farmland species can bounce back. It will be interesting to see how ambitious their environmental land management scheme will be, and how much funding will be put towards landscape-scale recovery. All a bit vague – seems to be following this theme!

• End the badger cull: Labour promise to end the Badger Cull, a completely ineffective and unethical practice which has now killed over 230,000 Badgers. It’s about time we moved to alternative methods with transmission primarily being from cattle to cattle, although there is little indication on what they’re planning these alternative methods to be.

Things I don’t like:

• Commitment of building 1.5 million houses: A tricky balance for a young person like me who one day (maybe when I’m 40) would like to own an affordable home but worries about the impact of these new developments. Previous governments have not matched their house building targets and I would have like to have seen indication of building with nature in mind. Mandatory swift bricks, bat boxes, green roofs, wildflower verges, ponds, the whole lot!

• Details on increasing renewable energy whilst protecting nature: With this big focus on green energy whilst combating the nature crisis, you’d think they would address ensuring renewable energy infrastructure is built whilst protecting nature.

Things that appear to be missing:

Although, in my opinion, the contents of the manifesto are positive and the best by far of the two serious competitors, there appears to be a lot missing when it comes to nature. I was shocked that despite being an island nation, there are no mentions of increasing protection of our seas, or of sustainable fishing. Furthermore, when addressing the state of our rivers the number one issue of agricultural pollution isn’t included. I was very disappointed that their climate action objectives seem separate to restoring nature – no nature-based solutions like reintroducing beavers (into rivers and not just fenced areas!), and limited indication of landscape-scape restoration which aids sequestering carbon. Despite indications of more public access to nature through nine new National River walks and three new National Forests, there is no commitment to Right to Roam as I expected.

Overall assessment:

A bit disappointing and vague. I would have liked to have seen a stronger stance on nature by Labour, although it’s more positive than the alternative. I’m pleased to see plans for Great British Energy (although not sure how it will work) and a Green Prosperity Plan to fight the climate crisis and bring extortionate energy bills down. Targets for tree-planting is a bit of a competition these days amongst parties, with millions of trees promised. I would have liked to see more emphasis on natural regeneration. Moving to a circular economy is a strong statement, but there is no explanation of how they would reduce and reuse waste in the first place to achieve this. Overall, it’s a mediocre plan for a manifesto which states we are in a climate and nature emergency. We should continue to fight for a braver, stronger, and more prioritised approach.

Would I vote for these environmental policies? Although we can’t always trust what is set out, the Labour’s environmental credentials seem somewhat positive, so I would vote for these policies. I’ll be voting tactically, as the Green Party have no chance in getting in, and I cannot stand another 5 years of Tory run.