Lib Dem Party Briefing

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H F T F . O R G . U K THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY BACKGROUND WHAT IS THE LIB DEMS T he Liberal Democrats were formed in STANCE ON 1989 as a merger of the Social Democratic Party & Liberal Party. From 2010-2015, the CLIMATE Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition POLICY? governed the UK. The Liberal Democrats are a centrist party, generally falling between the two main parties. Jo Swinson Background became party leader in July 2019. The Net Zero Liberal Democrats won 12 seats at the Policies most recent 2017 General Election, but by the end of the Parliament they had 21 MPs, due to defections from other parties. Continued... WHAT IS THEIR STANCE ON NET-ZERO, AND HOW The cornerstone of Liberal Democrats’ DO THEY AIM TO climate policy is a new ‘duty of care’ for UK ACHIEVE IT? businesses. This duty of care would make companies legally liable At the recent Autumn party conference, the Liberal for environmental harms Democrats passed their Tackling the Climate caused anywhere along Emergency motion. This motion puts forward a their supply chains. This blueprint for their climate & environmental policy, policy underlines the endorsing the aim of reaching net-zero by 2045 at Liberal Democrats’ the latest. The emphasis of this motion was not business-focus to only to achieve net-zero “as fast as possible” but tackling net-zero. This also states that setting a target “by itself is not pledge builds on enough.” The aim of the motion is to illustrate a previous comprehensive list of actions to achieve full announcements by the decarbonisation. Liberal Democrats in late 2018 to pass a number of new climate-related acts, including a Zero-Carbon Act, a GreenTransport Act, a Green Buildings Act, a Nature Act, & a Zero Waste Act. These bills would aim to raise UK buildings standards, make air pollution penalties more stringent, & give the Climate Change Committee greater powers to hold the Government to account. In addition to their strong emphasis on business-centric approaches, the Liberal Democrats are also a strong Remain party. Consequently, much of their environmental policy is tied to EU policies. Their Zero Carbon Britain Act, for example, would work within the EU to set binding targets for a net-zero Europe. Stopping Brexit is also key in their support & investment in renewable energy generation & technology research, aiming to ensure continued net-zero cooperation & membership of Euratom, the EU treaty on nuclear power. They also have a number of more direct actions they would take in Government, including the creation of a Just Transition Commission which would fund & manage the transition away from fossil fuels; replace the Government’s Green Investment Bank, which was sold off in 2017; requiring all local authorities to create a zero-carbon action plan; & the introduction of a national “citizen’s assembly” following the work done by Extinction Rebellion on his issue. POLICIES REFERENCES 1.https://www.carbonbrief.org/election-2017-what-minfestos-say-energy- climate-changehttps:// 2.www.libdems.org.uk/f29-climate-crisis 3.https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/themes/5909d4366ad575794c 000000/attachments/original/1495020157/Manifesto-Final.pdf? 1495020157 4.https://www.libdems.org.uk/bold-action-on-climate-change H F T F . O R G . U K.

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