Lib Dems top green ratings

10.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 30th Aug 2008

A new report into the green policies of the major parties makes grim reading for David Cameron. His Conservative party was judged to be the worst of the parties on the environment. Mr Brown's Labour Party was shown to have missed their own targets on carbon emissions and green energy. However, Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats were the clear green winners in the report. The 'Green Standard' report was conducted by the UK's leading environmental groups including CPRE, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB. It found that despite talking more about climate change, the Conservatives have "very few policy positions".

The Conservatives failed to win a single good rating on any of the report's criteria.

Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich said, "This independent report shows that, while the Conservatives may talk green, actually being green is something different."

Mr Aalders-Dunthorne who has a degree in Environmental Biology added "locally we have seen the inadequate investment in public transport, the routine closing of vital services in our rural areas and pressure to build on the fringe of urban Ipswich."

On climate change, the report said that the Liberal Democrat plans were "uniquely consistent with the urgency of this challenge." Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg MP said: "We need bold action to tackle climate change.This means investing in trains, improving energy efficiency and switching from taxing people to taxing pollution instead."

The Green Standard - www.thegreenstandard.org.uk