Last week UpRising joined 32 other charities in urging all the political parties to make environmental policy fairer.
We’ve united with a range of charities with expertise on environmental issues and representing disadvantaged and marginalised groups—including Disability Rights UK, the Race Equality Foundation, Groundwork, Barnardo's, Girlguiding UK, RNIB, and the Wildlife Trusts—to call for change from the next government.
You can read our paper - Making environmental policy work for everyone – here.
The policy ideas come from focus groups and surveys of over 800 Disabled people, older people, young people, and people from ethnic minorities. These findings were backed up by the experiences of charities working with these groups of people.
Our recommendations to make environmental policies fairer include:
- Putting a requirement for fairness in green policies into law.
- Prioritising the installation of heat pumps, solar panels, and insulation in rented housing and social housing, so everyone can benefit from lower energy bills sooner.
- Introducing a national scrappage scheme for low-income families to get rid of polluting vehicles.
Our recommendations to make government programmes more accessible to all people include:
- Targeting skills support at underrepresented groups, like people from ethnic minority communities, to help them access green jobs.
- Helping more people enjoy the health benefits of parks and rivers, including removing barriers like making paths accessible to wheelchair users and reducing crime.
The report is part of Everyone’s Environment, a group of over 70 charities working to ensure the needs of people are better reflected in environmental policies.
If you would like to join us in supporting these ideas, please get in touch at [email protected].