Election response 2019: Green Party

Read the Green’s response to CaSE’s letter, setting out the party’s commitments that are relevant to science and engineering

In the 2019 UK General Election, CaSE wrote to the leaders of all the political parties, inviting them to set out their party’s policies on science and engineering by answering a series of questions on how they would:

Ensure that high quality science, technology, engineering and maths education and training is sustainably funded, fit for purpose, and open to all?

Ensure the UK has a migration system that supports science and engineering mobility for excellence, skills, education and collaboration?

Maintain and build on the UK’s leadership and collaboration in research and innovation internationally?

Invest at a level and in such a way as to enhance the UK’s research and innovation environment?

Uphold and champion the use of evidence and science advice in all Government decisions, documents and messaging?

Ensure the regulatory environment facilitates trade and access to markets, and promotes innovation?

This comes after CaSE published its policy recommendations for the political parties to adopt. 

Response from The Green Party

A long-term plan to reach 3% of GDP invested in R&D by the end of the next decade, with planned annual increases for public investment in R&D.

The government has set out plans to increase the share of GDP invested in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. Based on the scale of the challenge before us we believe more investment will be required. We have a longstanding commitment to increasing public investment in R&D to 1% and we also believe that industry will have a crucial part to play in the shift towards new and more efficient technology. We would aim to reach your target of 3% by 2030.

In our Green New Deal we have made a number of specific commitments to invest in R&D. We hope that these will kick start the development of new technology in the energy, housing, agricultural and industrial sectors, ensuring the UK becomes a world leader in R&D.

These include:

Invest £6 billion per year into research and development to help industry to meet new clean technology standards and create new job opportunities through doing so. We will provide companies with grants to allow replacement of old high-emitting carbon equipment with newly developed low carbon equipment. These incentives to replace equipment will avoid the long-term lock-in of high carbon technologies.

£1 billion per year for R&D in the forestry and agricultural sectors to assist a transition to low-carbon, sustainable farming utilising new machinery and farming methods.

We would invest £800 million per year for research into carbon capture technologies. To achieve net-zero we will need to remove carbon from the air. Carbon capture is an essential part of the transition and in partnership with industry we must drive this technology forward making the UK the prime location for innovation in this sector.

As we transition towards this new economy we will drive innovation in renewable energy generation, smart grids, energy storage, energy efficiency, insulation and recycling. We need innovation to design out waste and move towards a circular economy where material can be reused or recycled and not simply discarded. We will develop a system in partnership with industry to recycle millions of gas boilers and cookers.

Your Party’s policies on research and innovation

Ensure that high quality science, technology, engineering and maths education and training is sustainably funded, fit for purpose, and open to all?

The Green Party believe that education should be lifelong, liberating and accessible to all. High quality teaching in STEM subjects can open up a world of discovery for students which they otherwise would not have known existed. It can unlock the potential of a career in science and lead to progress in research and new discoveries in the future made by school children of all backgrounds who are inspired today. We would increase funding for schools by £4 billion per year and work reduce class sizes to 20 to allow teachers to work more closely with pupils and to do what they do best; pass on a love for learning in all subjects. We will also increase funding for adult education across England and Wales, creating a range of new adult education programmes for learners to access. These programmes will be integrated with Green New Deal training projects

Ensure the UK has a migration system that supports science and engineering mobility for excellence, skills, education and collaboration?

 We celebrate and defend the right to free movement, and have consistently championed the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU. Further we recognise the benefits of encouraging talented people from abroad to study, collaborate and contribute to research in the UK and would ensure our migration system enables them to do so.

Maintain and build on the UK’s leadership and collaboration in research and innovation internationally?

Maintaining our membership of the EU would send the best possible message that we welcome talented and skilled researchers from the EU and from across the world. We are campaigning for a People’s Vote and to remain in the European Union. If the UK were to leave the EU the Green Party would strongly support ensuring the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe. This would allow the UK to drive forward the research agenda of Horizon Europe and develop the connections and collaboration we need and which cannot otherwise be replicated outside the project.

Invest at a level and in such a way as to enhance the UK’s research and innovation environment?

The importance of R&D as a key part of the Green New Deal demonstrates our commitment to such investment. We have taken a long-term view into what is required. Planning for the future requires long-term investment into R&D across all sectors with a focus on enhancing the UK’s research and innovation environment.

Uphold and champion the use of evidence and science advice in all Government decisions, documents and messaging?

The Green Party are guided by evidence in making policy and this would continue to be the case under a Green government. The rationale and evidence for decisions would be made publicly available and would inform our explanation of the decisions taken.

Ensure the regulatory environment facilitates trade and access to markets, and promotes innovation?

The Green Party would seek to balance the inequities and environmental damage which are often a feature of international trade with the need to promote collaboration to solve shared challenges such as progressing towards net zero carbon emissions and the development of new technology for the benefit of all.

You can read all CaSE’s 2019 election work and other responses to our letter