General election: Green Party vow to invest £100bn a year to tackle climate crisis

'Some things are even bigger than Brexit. This must be the climate election,' says co-leader Sian Berry

(PA)

The Green Party has vowed to invest £100bn a year in ending the UK's use of fossil fuels and tackling the climate emergency, as the party launches its general election campaign.

Attempting to frame next month's vote as the "climate election", the Greens today set out their plans to "decarbonise every single sector" of the economy and achieving carbon neutral by 2030.

Kicking off their election campaign on Wednesday, co-leaders Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley addressed activists in Bristol West – a key target for the party on 12 December.

Speaking earlier on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Bartley said to tackle the climate crisis "we need a transformation" and a Green New Deal to "transform the economy".

He said the party will invest £100bn a year to meet its primary objective, with £91bn from central government borrowing and a further £9bn "by increasing corporation tax in the UK from 19 to 24 per cent".

He said: ​"We want to invest in a super programme of insulation – we know that we've got to get those gas boilers out of homes and it's got to be made possible to do that. Replace with low carbon technology."

Defending the cost, he replied: "This is a question of when, not if. We have to make this investment if we're going to tackle the climate emergency and we have to make it now rather than in 10 years' time.

"It will save us a hell of a lot of money in the long run. The climate emergency if it comes to fruition does not bear thinking about in terms of the cost of trillions to the economy."

Ms Berry added at the launch of the Greens' campaign: "Some things are even bigger than Brexit. This must be the climate election. Let's be honest about the situation we're in. We know these are dark times. It's easy to fear the future.

"The threat of Brexit hangs over our heads, the climate emergency rages from the Amazon to the Arctic, and our fragile democracy is under attack. But despite all this, Greens don't fear the future. We don't fear the future. We welcome the future.

"We know that we stand at the threshold of what could be the most exciting and prosperous period of British history," she said.