The Greening of Brexit: May and Corbyn compared

Here are extracts on green issues of two speeches on Britain after Brexit by opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and  Prime Minister  Theresa May from last week:

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit policy speech, Mansion House, London

2 March 2018 (Extracts from Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-our-future-economic-partnership-with-the-european-union

 

Facing up to some hard facts

And in other areas like [….]  the environment, the EU should be confident that we will not engage in a race to the bottom in the standards and protections we set. There is no serious political constituency in the UK which would support this – quite the opposite.

The UK is also committed to establishing a far-reaching science and innovation pact with the EU, facilitating the exchange of ideas and researchers. This would enable the UK to participate in key programmes alongside our EU partners.

 

On energy, we will want to secure broad energy co-operation with the EU. This includes protecting the single electricity market across Ireland and Northern Ireland - and exploring options for the UK’s continued participation in the EU’s internal energy market. We also believe it is of benefit to both sides for the UK to have a close association with Euratom.

 

https://labour.org.uk/press/jeremy-corbyn-full-speech-britain-brexit/

 

Monday 26 February 2018 / 10:56 AM Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn FULL speech on Britain after Brexit

Coventry, 26 February 2018

Extracts

“…we will remain close to the European Union, that’s obvious….And Britain will need a bespoke, negotiated relationship of its own.”

“We can only tackle climate change, pollution and environmental degradation by working together and many of our closest allies in that struggle are in Europe.

The Green Alliance estimates that trade in low carbons good and services contributed over £42 billion to the economy in 2015.

The UK low carbon and renewable energy sector was expected to increase fivefold by 2030 potentially bringing 2 million jobs and contributing more than 8% of the UK’s total output.

But that needs us to maintain our standards to ensure barrier-free trade of low carbon goods.

These include eco-design and energy labelling standards, greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles, the internal energy market, construction product standards, chemicals regulation and nuclear safety and safeguards.”