Environmental policies for General Election 2019

By Amber Smith

There are various issues facing the parties this general election, one of the major issues is environmental issues although there are already many policies in place; but what will become of these; when we leave the European Union on January 31^st dependent on the decisions we make on Thursday?

John Bynorth, Environmental Protection Scotland said, “All the parties have an extensive list of environmental policies, the issue is the election has been dominated by Brexit rather than other issues.

Due to this the parties have not been questions on these policies and how they will change attitudes towards the environment and behaviours towards global warming.

There is a lot more to an election than Brexit.”

Bynorth said, “I do not think it helps having this uncertainty hanging over us, this talk about leaving the EU on January 31^st if the Conservatives win, Jeremy Corbyn is not going to take sides if he becomes Prime Minister and will respect the will of the people.

There is a whole range of issues related to environment, from fracking and tree planting to air pollution and recycling targets and a lot of these are linked into EU legislation and we’re sitting here wondering what is going to happen so it is important that these issues are discussed as they are still in doubt whether it is in a second referendum or if there is a deal put on the table if the Conservatives win.”

Bynorth agrees, “Animals are an important and huge part of our ecosystem everything you do to protect the environment protects them. Labor stated they look to have a commissioner to ensure there is a service, people will not be allowed to keep prime mates as pets. Liberal Democrats say they will ensure the maximum sentence for animal cruelty offenses will be extended.”

Bynorth stated, “Change needs to happen, and it needs to happen soon; people are noticing and this election could have been a great opportunity to get the message across.”

This is the time for change as many are gathering, so when going to the stations take into account the impact this vote may have on our environment.