By Dom Plaskota
Green activists have warned that the lack of climate policy discussion by the Labour and Conservative parties ahead of the general election will increase apathy among young voters.
An organiser for climate protest group Extinction Rebellion Mack, who is in his twenties, blamed the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system. “It’s a broken system. It’s in the interest of the main parties not to talk about it,” he said.
He spoke to Count at an Extinction Rebellion protest outside the annual general meeting of oil and gas giant Shell in London the day before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the election would be held on 4th July.
Another young protester Joe said, “I don’t think parliamentary politics is what it’s made out to be … I don’t think it’s driving people away from the two main parties. I think it means they won’t vote.”
A poll published by ITV and Savanta in April found over half of 18-25-year-olds feel politicians don’t care about them. The respondents named the environment in their top five election issues alongside issues like housing and mental health.
Last year Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak backtracked on the UK’s net zero commitments and delayed the introduction of key climate policies, most notably a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars which was postponed from 2030 to 2035.
In February, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer reduced the amount of green investment Labour pledged to spend if they win the election, from £28bn to £4.7bn.
Liberal Democrat Councillor and Lead Member for Climate Change at Guildford Borough Council George Potter said young people would feel disillusioned because “the Conservatives have backtracked to appease the hard-right, and Labour have scrapped their climate plans because they want to appeal to Conservative voters and are assuming that progressive voters have nowhere else to go.”
However, green transition expert Dr Leanne Wilson from the Labour-controlled North East Combined Authority in northeast England stressed the need for pragmatism.
In a virtual panel organised by climate policy think tank Centre for Progressive Policy, she said: “There’s a huge amount of work being done. Sometimes I think there is a risk of making the perfect the enemy of the good.”
Feature Image: Extinction Rebellion Protest outside Shell’s general meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Greenwich, London. Photo credit: Dom Plaskota.