A Conservative Government will make Britain greener by tackling climate change and enhancing our environment.
Quality of life and environmental issues must be at the heart of politics – which is why we have pledged to improve Britain's environment by working towards zero waste, providing incentives to recycle, encouraging sustainable water management, and taking action to help our wildlife.
Britain is struggling to cope with mountains of waste. We will introduce a new approach, one which minimises waste and promotes recycling. A Conservative government will introduce a Responsibility Deal on waste – a voluntary arrangement among producers to cut back on the production of waste and improve its disposal. We will put a floor under landfill tax until 2020 to give businesses long term certainty to invest in new forms of waste disposal and we will encourage councils to adopt a scheme which gives incentives to families that recycle.
Our water supply faces pressures from reduced river flows, pollution and growing demand. We will encourage greater competition in the water industry to help reduce water bills and improve efficiency and innovation, and we will look at regulatory reform to improve environmental standards.
We will take action to protect and enhance our natural environment from the pressures of climate change, over-exploitation of resources and development. As well as targeted help for protected habitats and species we also need to take a broader ecosystem approach which improves the landscape as a whole. To help reverse biodiversity loss, we will examine the case for introducing a system of conservation credits in England to provide an incentive to invest in biodiversity.
There is an urgent and growing need to improve the protection of our marine environment, as many of our fish stocks have been over-exploited. Having called for the Marine Act, we now need to ensure the legislation is as effective as possible and helps conserve our marine habitats. We will work for wholesale reform of the Common Fisheries Policy to get a fair deal for Britain’s fishermen and protect our marine environment.
Climate change adaption must go hand in hand with mitigation measures, and we are committed to increasing Britain’s ability to cope with extreme weather conditions, for example by improving our flood prevention measures. For more information on climate change, please click here.