Melanie Smallman and Jake Sumner, SERA: Labour’s Environment Campaign Co-chairs In response to the Chancellor's mini budget today, Melanie Smallman and Jake Sumner set out what green recovery should look like. They argue that the Government’s announcements so far have been inadequate and instead what’s needed are policies that have a twin focus on tackling the climate crisis and building a more secure society. The Government is falling us on both these fronts. Continue reading

On Monday, SERA and Labour Business hosted an event with Ed Miliband MP, Liam Byrne MP and Matt Pennycook MP. It brought together regional, national and international perspectives on the green recovery. Many thanks to the high number of SERA members, Labour Party members and Labour Business stakeholders who joined us earlier this week. We streamed this live on our Facebook page, and the recording is available to watch on demand below. As we look to rebuild our economy for build a better, greener and fairer future, we hope to see some of the excellent points raised by members included in Labour's National Policy Forum consultation report. Continue reading

SERA member Victor Anderson writes for SERA's blog on the Dasgupta Review of the economics of biodiversity, which published its interim report at the start of last month. Here Victor outlines the limitations of the report, particularly its framing and focus on market-based environmental economics, and asks whether we should view nature and biodiversity as more than just 'assets' that can maximise profits. Continue reading

Hugh Atkinson, SERA Member and Distinguished Research Fellow Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Solutions, Bristol, writes for SERA's blog about the climate solutions that the financial sector has to offer.  Continue reading

As a socialist society, SERA has always been pro european and passionate supporters of the EU. More than any other policy issue, the climate and environment emergency requires a global cooperative effort to tackle the crisis. Today we want to publicly thank and pay tribute to our Labour MEPs and the S&D group that have worked to promote social and environmental justice over the last forty years across Europe. Theresa Griffin MEP writes exclusively for SERA on Labour's climate success in Europe. Theresa is Chair of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and lead Member for Energy, Industry and Digital.  Continue reading

For this piece exclusive to SERA's blog, Jo Smith, content writer for the Immigration Advice Service discusses the important issue of disaster-induced displacement. With the rapid escalation of extreme weather events, Jo argues that it is time to address the matter of climate refugees.  Continue reading

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Cllr Tom Hayes, Oxford City Council portfolio holder for Safer, Greener, Environment writes for SERA about the launch of Oxford's Zero Emissions Zone. Here Tom shows how, faced with the Conservatives' lack of action on climate, Labour councils such as the one in Oxford are leading way on tackling the climate crisis. Find Tom on Twitter at @CllrTomHayes. Bridge of Sighs, Oxford Continue reading

Cllr Tom Hayes, Oxford City Council portfolio holder for Safer, Greener, Environment writes for SERA about the outcome of Oxford's Citizen Assembly on Climate Change and the Council's consequent climate emergency budget, which reflects the views of the Assembly. Continue reading

This article was originally published in SERA's Summer 2019 edition of New Ground. Jake Sumner is SERA's Co-Chair, in this article he argues that following Parliament's declaration of an environment and climate emergency in May 2019, we need a Climate Emergency Spending Review to achieve the urgent and rapid response our planet needs.  Continue reading

This article was originally published in SERA's Summer 2019 edition of New Ground magazine. At the time of writing Sue Hayman was the Labour MP for Workington and Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Sue is running for re-election and in this article explains the action from Labour on declaring a climate and environment emergency in Parliament and the inaction by the Conservatives ever since. Continue reading