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Hundreds gathered at Manchester Central for the Green Party Conference last Friday to set out the party’s priorities for the next few years.
The Greens made history by winning four seats in the general election in July, taking Bristol Central off Labour, two seats in the former Conservative-leaning Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire, and retaining Brighton Pavilion.
With this boost in public support, there is renewed optimism that the party can apply pressure to the new government and ensure it delivers the urgent action needed to tackle the climate and environmental crises we face.
IEMA’s senior public affairs officer Asim Ali, who attended the conference, explains what the mood was like and outlines some of the key talking points below.
What was the atmosphere like in Manchester?
There was a real buzz around the place, and they talked about using their platform to go over and beyond, not just in the next general election, but the local elections coming up in the next few years. With community-led campaigns, they want to offer an alternative to the status quo in terms of Labour and the Conservatives, in a similar way to what the Lib Dems have done. They knew they weren’t going to win more seats than the two main parties, but they intend to pile the pressure on the current government to push their policies through.
You heard co-Leader Adrian Ramsay give a powerful address on lifting the onshore wind ban and expanding renewable energy. What were some of the other objectives discussed at the conference?
It was really interesting to see that they are trying to place themselves on a political spectrum as an alternative to ex-Labour members who are probably more on the left. They spoke about pushing the sustainability agenda further on things like incentivising farmers to carry out nature-friendly farming, clean energy, and transforming all sectors of the economy to make sure they’re on this journey to net zero. Another key takeaway was their call to renationalise the water industry and bring it back into public ownership, which was quite a big statement to make. They also talked about doing more to tackle the far right and Islamophobia.
I understand you also bumped into former leader Caroline Lucas?
She still carries a big influence within the Green Party, and they had a nice look back on her career and what she did for the party, and gave her a standing ovation. I thanked her for all her work, because she really helped make sustainability fashionable.
IEMA’s policy team will also be attending the Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrats’ party conferences. What do you hope to achieve?
As a bipartisan organisation, our objective is to make sure we're having conversations with policymakers and promoting our policy asks on sustainability. You can imagine how many businesses and industry leaders are there trying to make their own mark at these platforms, so it's important to be visible, because we represent 22,000 members and are one of the biggest players in the sustainability space, so we want everyone to be familiar with our agenda.
Chris Seekings is the Deputy Editor of IEMA’s Transform magazine, which is published biomonthly for IEMA members. Chris’s role involves writing sustainability-related news, features and interviews, as well as helping to plan and manage the magazine’s other day-to-day activities.
