2024 manifesto ranking criteria in full

The analysis evaluated the four manifestos against 40 policy recommendations. The Green Party scored highest with a near perfect score of 39 out of 40 followed by the Liberal Democrats with 32, the Labour Party with 21 and the Conservatives bottom with 5. Scores were also broken down into four categories: climate and energy, homes and transport, nature and environment, and justice and democracy

See Greenpeace’s 2024 manifesto ranking.

Climate and energy

Parties were judged against this list of ideal climate and energy policies. They scored one point for each policy they’ve they’ve committed to – or half a point for a partial commitment.

1. Produce a new comprehensive and fair climate plan to ensure international and domestic greenhouse gas reduction targets are met, inequalities are reduced and the UK is developing the green industries and jobs of the future. This should be delivered through emissions reduction at source – rather than through offsetting or unproven carbon removal techniques, and existing laws, regulation and guidance in England should be brought fully in-line with emissions reduction targets, climate adaptation plans and nature restoration goals.
2. Increase long-term funding, powers and flexibility for councils and regional mayors in England so that they can and are required to deliver climate and nature goals and better involve local people – especially the most marginal and those most impacted by environmental harms – in policy design and delivery.
3. Introduce new regulations to require companies and financial institutions to align their activities with the 1.5°C goal in the Paris Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework – including mandating key sectors to disclose their impacts on nature and publish Nature Positive Plans, without relying on offsets.
4. Update rules for borrowing from the first year of a new government to allow investment on the scale needed for growth-generating green infrastructure.
5. At least maintain the UK’s existing commitment to international climate finance of £11.6bn over the five year period of 2021/22 to 2025/26, ensuring all funds are provided from genuinely new and additional sources, are not derived from the international aid or development budgets, and are predictable, needs-based and largely grant-based. And immediately restore and maintain the budget for Official Development Assistance to 0.7% of Gross National Income.
6. Provide significant new and additional sources of public finance for international climate finance beyond 2025/26. Finance to support workers and communities dealing with climate impacts at home and abroad should be raised through taxing oil and gas companies more (including their trading activities), and through redirecting fossil fuel production subsidies.
7. Decarbonise the grid well before 2035, achieved through at least 10-14GW of new renewables every year of which at least 5GW should be offshore wind; removing unfair planning rules blocking onshore wind in England, and fast tracking electricity grid upgrades in harmony with nature and ensuring community benefits. Support new green job creation through providing at least £4bn of investment in ports and supply chains to support floating offshore wind.
8. Commit to no new nuclear; and redirect subsidies for biomass to genuinely non-emitting and renewable energy sources that are at the very least not in competition with nature restoration (and where possible helping to enhance nature and food production).
9. Commit to an immediate end to all new planning permissions, licences and permits for onshore and offshore fossil fuels, and rule out carbon capture and storage for fossil fuels and bioenergy.
10. Ban new or expanding factory farms; set an absolute target to reduce meat and dairy consumption by at least 50% by 2030; support the development of alternative proteins without increasing feed crop land; and use government procurement to support more healthy, flexitarian and plant-based diets.

Nature and environment

Parties were judged against this list of ideal nature and environment policies. They scored one point for each policy they’ve they’ve committed to – or half a point for a partial commitment.

1. Significantly increase powers, as well as funding for regulators (to at least 2010 levels in real terms) so they have the staff, financial resources and skills to enforce standards.
2. Set legal targets for eliminating sewage spills in ecologically sensitive areas and designated bathing waters by 2030; ban water ban water company shareholder dividends and bonus payments; and significantly invest in upgrading sewage treatment infrastructure while taking a government share in water companies. Ensure low-income households are protected from water bill rises by introducing a social tariff for water.
3. Set and deliver legal targets to eliminate non-essential single-use packaging by the late 2030s and a 30% reuse target by 2030, including through immediately implementing an all-in Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for recycling and reuse and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements that promote reuse and packaging reduction. Alongside this, commit to a complete ban on all plastic waste exports by 2027 at the latest, and ending approvals for new incineration facilities.
4. Commit to the planning and other policy changes required to meet and exceed the Environment Act target on species abundance, in order to halt and begin to reverse the decline of wild species and fully or highly protect at least 30% of UK land and oceans by 2030. This should include more SSSI designations, new obligations and rewards for landowners to manage protected sites better for nature, a new ‘Public Nature Estate’ duty on public bodies to restore habitats in land they own and sea they manage, and at a minimum maintaining and properly implementing the Habitats Regulations that have protected our most important wildlife sites and species for the last 30 years.
5. Double the annual budget for nature-friendly agro-ecological farming and land management to at least £6 billion a year, with no delay to the roll-out of new farm payment systems delivering on the principle of public money for public goods, to improve nature’s richness, soil quality, resilience to climate change and flood protection across most agricultural land; and set a statutory target to reduce pesticide use and risk by 50% by 2030.
6. Agree a plan with the forestry industry, conservationists and farmers to significantly increase woodland, including for domestic timber production, to avoid harmful imports, and put the UK on the path to doubling tree cover by 2050, including more trees in our cities for heat resilience and wellbeing.
7. Make a binding commitment not to allow fishing above scientifically recommended sustainable levels; immediately ban all industrial fishing in Marine Protected Areas through applying vessel licence conditions, and allocate fishing opportunities on the basis of environmental, social and local economic criteria.
8. Introduce a new UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to require UK companies to carry out due diligence to prevent environmental damage and human rights abuses in their supply chains, alongside tightening and extending existing due diligence obligations in the Environment Act to tackle both illegal and legal deforestation in supply chains.
9. Ratify the new UN Global Ocean Treaty by the end of 2024; advocate for the establishment of a network of ocean sanctuaries covering at least 30% of global oceans by 2030, including the Sargasso Sea as part of the first set of designations under the treaty; and support a ban or moratorium on deep sea mining.
10. Support an ambitious UN Global Plastic Treaty to deliver the following: phase out virgin plastic production; end single-use plastic; end pollution across the whole lifespan of plastic; and support a just and inclusive transition to a low-carbon, zero-waste, reuse-based economy, standing up to the vested interests in the petrochemical industry.

Homes and transport

Parties were judged against this list of ideal housing and transport policies. They scored one point for each policy they’ve they’ve committed to – or half a point for a partial commitment.

1. Provide a minimum of £4bn a year to aid skills development, retraining and job creation, particularly in areas most in need of just transition investment; and increase obligations on green industry, such as renewables and heat pumps, to grow supply chains and guarantee more good quality, secure UK jobs.
2. Invest at least £6bn of public funds annually on average over 10 years to deliver a national home retrofit programme, starting in areas most in need; and introduce regulations to increase the energy efficiency of private rented-sector homes and social housing to at least Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C rating by 2028, including with safeguards for tenants, EPC C for fuel poor homes by 2030, and at least EPC B for non-residential buildings by 2030.
3. Implement and enforce the existing Future Homes Standard from 2025, with freedom for local authorities to be more ambitious where appropriate, and introduce regulations for all new buildings to meet net zero energy for all uses by 2030, including mandating solar on new buildings.
4. Electrify heating through measures to ensure at least 900,000 heat pumps are fitted each year by 2028, and provide at least £1bn per year additional public funding to help ensure low-income homes don’t need to contribute to the cost, and that for others the cost is not greater than a boiler replacement. Blue hydrogen for building heating should be ruled out.
5. Ensure energy is affordable now and in the future through the immediate introduction of a social tariff for low-income families, alongside other measures to significantly reduce poverty.
6. Bring buses and national railways under public control – through franchising buses and nationalising the railways. Alongside this, use money freed-up by scrapping multi-billion-pound new road building plans, alongside around an extra £8-10bn/yr public investment to boost bus, rail and cycling infrastructure expansion and electrification.
7. Recommit to phasing out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 and ban diesel HGVs before 2040. Alongside this, generate investment for 10 battery gigafactories by 2040, increase funding for an expanded EV charging network, and increase the mandate for local authorities and electricity networks to roll it out.
8. Ban overall expansion of airport capacity, curtail extensive flying through a frequent flyer levy, ban private jets and short haul flights, and introduce taxes on kerosene.
9. Commit at least an extra £1bn/yr to help make public transport the cheapest option through indefinitely capping single bus fares outside of London at a maximum of £1.65 and providing free bus travel for everyone under the age of 25.
10. Commit to update air quality limits to bring them in line with World Health Organization levels as soon as possible. Action should be prioritised in areas where there’s a higher concentration of vulnerable people (eg schools and hospitals), including through well designed Clean Air Zones and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to restrict the dirtiest vehicles from the most polluted places. This should be accompanied by a £1.5 billion per year scrappage scheme to enable drivers to switch to cleaner vehicles or public transport, and setting a target to cut car miles by 25% by 2030.

Justice and democracy

Parties were judged against this list of ideal justice and democracy policies. They scored one point for each policy they’ve they’ve committed to – or half a point for a partial commitment.

1. Ensure all new trade deals are negotiated transparently, with public and parliamentary scrutiny, and do not undermine current or future climate change, nature, food, farming and human rights standards or obligations.
2. Commit to raising wealth and property taxes on the super-rich, for example the richest 1% of Britons with a total wealth of £2.8tn, to tackle inequality and fund the measures needed to ensure the green transition is fair for everyone, for example by eradicating fuel poverty and ensuring public transport enables all to access jobs and services.
3. Revoke the anti-strikes legislation and the Trade Union Act 2016; and lead a just transition strategy, in collaboration with empowered local authorities, businesses, workers, their unions and other relevant stakeholders.
4. Introduce into UK law a new human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as recognised by the UN General Assembly. Incorporated into this should be the environmental rights set out in the UN Aarhus Convention on the right to know, public participation and access to justice.
5. Support a Scottish-style Right to Roam across the whole of the UK, extending public access to woodlands, rivers and green rural spaces, and invest at least £2bn over the next Parliament to create new jobs and training in habitat restoration.
6. Revoke the Public Order Act but while still ensuring legislative measures are in place to support buffer zones to protect women using abortion clinics from harassment; revoke the Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023; and revoke the Police, Courts and Sentencing Act.
7. Guarantee the independence of the Electoral Commission by repealing the sections of the Elections Act 2022 which allow government to direct the Commission; and reform the Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 to ensure civil society can participate transparently without facing complex regulatory barriers. Alongside this, scrap voter ID.
8. Give 16–17-year-olds the vote and introduce proportional representation for Westminster elections. Younger people are among the most significantly affected by environmental degradation and their voices aren’t properly heard in decision-making.
9. Safeguard the Human Rights Act and the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights; and uphold and be a champion for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and land rights in all domestic policy and international fora.
10. Adopt an actively welcoming policy towards refugees and people displaced by environmental disasters and the climate crisis – including adopting a safe and legal environmental visa scheme and a legal right to stay; and repeal the Illegal Migration Act and the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024.