Friends of the Earth are one of many organisations asking candidates like me to make election pledges. They want every Council to have a carbon budget; investment in the low carbon economy; strong international action against climate change; and to reduce our reliance on meat fed on soya which is destroying forests.

According to their website, candidates from four parties have signed up to these pledges. About 60 from Labour, 100 Liberal Democrats and 150 Greens. However there is only a sole Tory signatory, Zac Goldsmith, ex-editor of the Ecologist magazine. This clearly indicates that a Tory government will not match Cameron’s talk with the environmental action we need.

Steve Barnard

Green Party Parliamentary candidate Sheffield Hallam

footnote

As this letter was published on the Sheffield Green Party website the numbers of candidates signing had gone up to

Labour  75

Conservatives    2

Lib Dems  133

SNP 2

Plaid Cymru    5

Green   244

Other    12

You can see the latest figures on the FOE website