Climate Justice

We must SPEED UP our ambitions. We need to raise our net zero ambitions to 2030 across the borough. We must accelerate clean energy projects. We need to retrofit our homes faster and bring more of the financial savings directly to our residents. We need greater ambition in cleaning up our rivers and air. We need to create more green corridors so walking, public transport and cycling is safe and available to all of our diverse communities across the borough. We need to plant more trees to cool our borough and store more carbon.

We must SLOW DOWN our consumption. We must have honest conversations about the need to reduce over-consumption, fossil-plastic and waste. We need a circular economy which reduces, re-uses and repairs as a top priority, and recycles everything else. Over-consumption of luxury items and high-carbon travel, such as private jets and frequent flying, cause higher global temperatures and more toxic air with worst impacts on the poorest communities. We must urgently call for national government to take action, while doing everything within our power to tackle over-consumption locally through the transition towards a circular and low-carbon economy. We must use our council’s procurement practices and engage our partners across the borough to educate the public in how to align our lives with meaningful, low-impact lifestyles including low-carbon leisure and travel.

We need to be honest about our situation and move rapidly to a sustainable way of living which is fair for everyone, committing to doing everything in our power to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming.

The climate crisis is a racist crisis. As Greens, we know that you cannot have climate justice without racial, social and economic justice too. Global heating, toxic air, cuts to public transport – all hurt the people and communities who have done least to cause them.

(Michael Lomotey, an expert on anti-blackness in the environmental movement, speaks about Black Futures at the Hackney Green Party’s AGM in 2023)

We must remove the barriers to participation in decision-making on climate and ecological action for our most diverse communities. Too often marginalised communities are excluded from opportunities to shape climate action in our borough, even though many of these diverse communities have heritage in global South countries and understand these urgent crises intimately.

Climate breakdown is already happening – with recent flooding in Stoke Newington and Hackney Wick as well as heat deaths across London last summer. But we can still contain the worst effects of the climate and ecological crisis if we act with greater ambition and urgency.

Hackney has the fourth highest level of heat vulnerability in the UK with 111 areas requiring adaptation. A Green Mayor will accelerate climate adaptation in order to defend our borough’s most vulnerable residents.

Whilst prioritising action to reduce our impact, we will also take immediate action on climate adaptation to prepare for climate risks such as creating havens from heat and cold, improving our buildings (for example schools and hospitals) and implementing improved drainage systems.

Hackney Council plans to increase waste-burning in east London. In 2025, the Council will redevelop and expand the Edmonton Incinerator, which is based in one of London’s most deprived boroughs. The new incinerator, if built, will likely burn more than 150,000 tonnes of plastic per year, adding to the toxic air breathed by the poorest communities in one of the poorest parts of east London.