Monthly Archives: January 2009

Greens Lead The Way In Plastic Bag Reduction

Posted on January 12, 2009 by | Leave a comment

First came the Green Party Councillors’ successful motion to Leicester City Council in November, asking the Council to “support and encourage retailers, businesses and commercial manufacturers to eliminate excessive packaging, in particular the widespread use of plastic bags, replacing them where necessary with reusable bags made from natural fibres or strong paper, and with cardboard boxes or carton”

protest about plastic bags outside jacksonsThis was followed up by the Party’s campaign, in conjunction with Clarendon Park traders, to free Queens Road of free plastic bags. All traders who were approached supported the campaign, with the exception of Jackson ‘s. Most were happy to go along with a charge of 5p to those customers who really need one.

Even Jackson ‘s has compromised by displaying a poster on every till asking: “Do you really NEED another plastic bag?”

The Council has now followed the Green initiative by launching its own”green bag”.  Libraries and museums will no longer hand out plastic carriers, councillors have agreed. Businesses will be encouraged to join the scheme, which will be piloted in the city centre and neighbourhood shopping areas. Councillor Robert Wann, the cabinet environment spokesman, said: “We felt we should set the example first before asking retailers to do it.” Queens Road could pilot the extension of this scheme if given the go-ahead.

“There is no such thing as a free plastic bag,” says Leicester Green Party Chair Barney Smith. “They have a cost in natural resources in manufacture and delivery. The trader has to pay for them. All customers pay for them in the price of their goods whether they use them or not. They are a cost to the Council in having to dispose of them. They are a cost to the environment in litter and pollution.”

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Posted in East Midlands, Environment

Free Insulation For All

Posted on January 12, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Matt Follett, Green Party councillor said today

“The Local Government Association and the Green Party have called for  councils to provide nationwide free insulation, through a scheme based on the Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council model, that has  by the Green Party Group of Councillors in Kirklees, a model which includes how it can be financed.

Insulating every home properly cuts fuel bills in the average home by up to half. This helps everyone at a time of rising energy prices, but especially people on low incomes in older, more run-down housing who – even though they can ill afford it – spend more of their income than the better off, just to keep warm.

insulationThe Green Party has shown that a universal free insulation scheme can work in Kirklees, Huddersfield where Green Councillors have made sure that 40,000 households will receive around £400 worth of insulation measures for absolutely nothing.

Last year, more homes were insulated like this in Kirkless than in the whole of Greater London.

If they can do it in Kirklees why can’t we do it in Derbyshire?

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Posted in Derbyshire, Environment

Brown, Cameron Have “Tenuous Grasp” Of Sustainable Economics

Posted on January 8, 2009 by | 1 Comment

UK is being left behind in green industrial revolution

One of Britain’s leading Greens today slammed Gordon Brown’s allegedly ‘green’ new deal, and called for a long overdue green industrial revolution.

In an analysis piece in online news and current affairs service politics.co.uk, Professor John Whitelegg said, ‘We have known the inherent advantages of green economics for a long time. It’s now a decade since the European Commission worked out that doubling the amount of renewables in Europe would create 500,000 to 900,000 new jobs. Since then we’ve seen 13,000 jobs created in Denmark in wind energy alone, bringing the total to 23,000 – and that’s a country the size of North West England with a population comparable to London’s.’

He continued, ‘It’s a decade since researchers assessed that a 10-year programme to cut domestic energy use would create 500,000 person-years of work in the UK; but Tony Blair killed off the highly popular Home Energy Conservation Bill and we’re still wanting a complete retrofit of twenty million UK homes to 21st-century green energy standards.’

Professor Whitelegg, who has taught sustainable development and sustainable transport at UK universities and worked internationally as a transport and environment consultant, asked what the Labour government is waiting for. He drew attention to Labour’s own 1994 report In Trust for Tomorrow, which found that ‘higher environmental standards’ could generate 682,000 jobs, allowing for a carbon tax and various investments.

‘Other organisations made similar findings,’ he said. ‘Energy for Sustainable Development Ltd found in 1998 that for an investment of £2.2 billion a year, up to half a million UK jobs could be created by a range of policies calculated to cut CO2 emissions by 30% by 2010.’

John Whitelegg, who is the Green Party’s national spokesperson on sustainabale development, accused Labour and the Tories of ‘tinkering with half-baked ideas tacked-on to an outmoded concept of economics,’ and said
they should ‘get a serious grip on reality.’

He concluded, ‘We don’t need a Brown New Deal. We need a Green New Deal.’

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Posted in Economy, National

Brown, Cameron Have "Tenuous Grasp" Of Sustainable Economics

Posted on January 8, 2009 by | 1 Comment

UK is being left behind in green industrial revolution

One of Britain’s leading Greens today slammed Gordon Brown’s allegedly ‘green’ new deal, and called for a long overdue green industrial revolution.

In an analysis piece in online news and current affairs service politics.co.uk, Professor John Whitelegg said, ‘We have known the inherent advantages of green economics for a long time. It’s now a decade since the European Commission worked out that doubling the amount of renewables in Europe would create 500,000 to 900,000 new jobs. Since then we’ve seen 13,000 jobs created in Denmark in wind energy alone, bringing the total to 23,000 – and that’s a country the size of North West England with a population comparable to London’s.’

He continued, ‘It’s a decade since researchers assessed that a 10-year programme to cut domestic energy use would create 500,000 person-years of work in the UK; but Tony Blair killed off the highly popular Home Energy Conservation Bill and we’re still wanting a complete retrofit of twenty million UK homes to 21st-century green energy standards.’

Professor Whitelegg, who has taught sustainable development and sustainable transport at UK universities and worked internationally as a transport and environment consultant, asked what the Labour government is waiting for. He drew attention to Labour’s own 1994 report In Trust for Tomorrow, which found that ‘higher environmental standards’ could generate 682,000 jobs, allowing for a carbon tax and various investments.

‘Other organisations made similar findings,’ he said. ‘Energy for Sustainable Development Ltd found in 1998 that for an investment of £2.2 billion a year, up to half a million UK jobs could be created by a range of policies calculated to cut CO2 emissions by 30% by 2010.’

John Whitelegg, who is the Green Party’s national spokesperson on sustainabale development, accused Labour and the Tories of ‘tinkering with half-baked ideas tacked-on to an outmoded concept of economics,’ and said
they should ‘get a serious grip on reality.’

He concluded, ‘We don’t need a Brown New Deal. We need a Green New Deal.’

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Posted in Uncategorized

Thousands March For Palestine

Posted on January 3, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Manchester Greens were among thousands of protestors on the streets of the city today, calling for an end to the bombardment of the Palestine people by the Israeli military, and a lifting of the siege of Gaza.

Turnout on the march was impressive, particularly given the short notice and the fact that there was a national demomnstration in London at the same time.

At a rally in Albert Square a broad range of speakers condemned the Israeli assault which has killed well over 400 men, women and children in Gaza over the past week with the tacit support of the US Government and its western allies.
Amongst those on the platform in Manchester was lead European Election candidate for the Green Party, Peter Cranie.

Peter said ‘You will never achieve peace by overwhelming military force; you will never achieve peace by the crushing of a civilian population.  We call for world leaders like Barack Obama and Gordon Brown to work for peace and for justice for the Palestinian people.’

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Posted in National, Peace & Human Rights