The decision was taken at the party's autumn conference
Green Party members have voted to bolster their policies on nature restoration. At their autumn conference in Brighton, members overwhelmingly voted for a motion which strengthened the party’s nature policies.
The motion brings Green Party policy in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreed at the COP15 Conference on Biological Diversity last December.
Signatories to the GBF – which include the UK, along with 187 other governments – have committed to ambitious nature restoration targets, such as protecting 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030, known as ’30by30′.
Previously, Green Party policy had not included these targets, which any future government would be committed to delivering. Now the wildlife and habitats chapter of the party’s Policies for a Sustainable Society document will commit Greens to setting targets at least as ambitious as 30by30.
Environment secretary Therese Coffey signed the agreement last year and the UK committed to 30by30 in 2020 under Boris Johnson. But the UK government has been criticised for their lack of on the ground action towards meeting this target.
Wildlife & Countryside Link, a national coalition of over eighty environmental groups, say under 4% of land and just 8% of the sea is currently protected for nature.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
This article is jointly published with Bright Green
Image credit: Bristol Green Party – Creative Commons
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