Vote blue, go green? Er, not yet

Last Modified: 12 Sep 2007
By: Channel 4 News

David Cameron's Conservatives have been ranked behind the Lib Dems and Labour in the race to become Britain's greenest party.

The verdict is published today in a joint report from nine of Britain's largest environmental groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the World Wildlife Fund, and Green Alliance.

Since taking over as party leader David Cameron has made numerous public statements of his commitment to green issues, cycling to work on a bicycle and switching the party's logo from a carbon-dioxide releasing torch to an eco-friendly tree.

But the green groups were concerned that the Conservatives had failed to back these aspirations up with significant policy commitment.

They were given a 'red light' mark, indicating serious concern, on two out of six areas: the international commitment to reduce climate change, and promoting green living.

They received no 'green lights' indicating broad approval.

The news comes as the party seeks to bolster its eco-credentials with their 'Quality of Life' report, authored by former minister John Gummer and Ecologist editor Zac Goldsmith, due to be published tomorrow.

The report will propose a number of measures, such as council tax rebates for people who recycle their rubbish and 20p deposits on drinks bottles.

But it will not automatically become party policy, and overall the environmental groups were not impressed with the Conservatives' commitment to the environment.

The report explains the ratings thus: "David Cameron's Conservatives have given the environmental cause a profile greater than it has enjoyed for many years, and put pressure on the government to deliver.

"But even on climate change they still have very few policy positions, and there is therefore currently insufficient ground for confidence that they would deliver in government."

Lib Dems and Labour

The Liberal Democrats gained the best marks in the report, with the best possible 'green light' rating on three areas - UK action on climate change, green living, and environmental taxation.

But the groups' noted that they were in a better position to make concrete promises, as they have less chance of ever having to implement them.

"We acknowledge that the much lower prospect of a Liberal Democrat government provides them with greater freedom to develop policy commitments," the report says.

Labour received a mixed scorecard, with green lights for its approach to international action on climate change, but a red for its record on building environmental concerns into the planning system.