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Tony Firkins

@tfirkins.bsky.social
30 followers 61 following 5 posts
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Tony Firkins @tfirkins.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I attended Green Party conference. I voted for energy equality, ambitious climate target, measures to reduce greenhouse gases, nitrates and phosphates from agriculture, less noise from airports, revised carbon pricing, new marine policy. I voted against nuclear power, fiscal referees and motion E02.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Scotland already has a Land Commission. In France the regional 'SAFER's have the first right to buy land that comes onto the market, to then sell-on to a buyer who/which will fulfil one of their agricultural or redistributional (or other) objectives.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
The Green Party wants more equitable distribution of land ownership because in UK it is too concentrated. A Land Commission could develop policies for redistribution. In France the ‘SAFER’ system has land purchase powers to help with redistribution. Should be we have policies like this in UK? 🧵
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 06/03/2026
Your bonus 'doom quote' for today: "The 'runaway' climate threat now is the danger that today’s accelerated global warming will push Earth past a 'point of no return,' with irreversible consequences for today’s young people and their descendants." mailchi.mp/caa/runaway-...
mailchi.mp
Runaway Climate: The Point of No Return
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Wildlife and Countryside Link @wclnews.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Biodiversity Net Gain is meant to protect nature. But right now, developers can skip it by ticking a box and writing a belief – not providing evidence. No proof. No checks. No fixes for nature. That’s the de minimis loophole – and it needs to go. Read more: www.wcl.org.uk/docs/BNG_no_...
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
The government budget for Sustainable Farming Initiative is very small - a gesture. However we are pleased that SFI is at least back. GP would triple current funding to support nature friendly farming, with a total farming support budget of about £4.5billion. defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/08/t...
defrafarming.blog.gov.uk
The new SFI offer for 2026
Following the Secretary of State’s speech at the Oxford Farming Conference today, we summarise how we're making the new SFI simpler and more targeted, and what this means for you.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Ref 'Key Judgement no.3 in the report. Ref the section on "Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss" - the government strategy acknowledges that this is vital, but in fact government policies are not on track to achieve a reversal, as pointed out in previous posts.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
The government’s “Nature Security Assessment on Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security” published 20th Jan is frightening e.g. probable food insecurity from 2030 onwards. It predicts global reduction in arable land. UK imports 40% of our food.🧵 www.gov.uk/government/p...
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Sadly suppressing such a devastating report doesn’t make the risks go away - it just makes them even harder to deal with. Facing up to the truth is the first step to coping with it - it’s beyond scandalous that ministers tried to prevent this. They need to act - and fast
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
The Green Party has comprehensive policies to increase our food self-sufficiency and decrease the amount of land used to produce meat. The government report recognises that the high level of meat production is a problem, but has no policies to make the necessary changes in land use.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
We need to produce less meat to address serious food security risks, says government report - our food production capability is going to decline. Half our arable land is used to grow food for animals, but could feed more people if used to grow food for humans directly.🧵 www.gov.uk/government/p...
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Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
The government’s delay in publishing its national security assessment on biodiversity loss & ecosystem collapse is inexcusable. Much of the content is already out of date. The science/evidence, national security implications & solutions are clear. There's absolutely no justification to delay action.
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Martin Farley 🔰 @martinfarley.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Extraordinary polling from @yougov.co.uk today, showing the @greenparty.org.uk in first place across all working age people 🟢Grn - 20.5% 🔴Lab - 20.3% ⚫Ref - 20.1% 🔵Con - 15.5% baffling why 60% of pensioners are supporting Con/Ref who will slash public spending that mainly goes to pensioners
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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
The Environment Secretary spoke about transforming England’s uplands at Oxford Farming Conference. But will this start from the premise that our uplands are the least productive areas for food, and best-suited for nature restoration? Or will it continue to prop up overgrazing & intensive farming? 1/
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Green Party of England & Wales welcomes land reforms passed in Scottish Parliament, giving rights to local communities to buy estates for sale. Estates could be split into small plots. We want more equality of access. Land should not be capital investment for the rich. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Scottish Parliament passes land reform bill
The legislation is designed to help reduce the concentration of rural land ownership among a small number of people.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
As COP30 limped to its unimpressive conclusion we know we cannot rely on current governments to prevent catastrophic climate change. In UK only the Green Party has policies committing us to returning to living within the ‘Planetary Boundaries’ needed . www.stockholmresilience.org/research/pla...
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
For example Commitment 26 of the Plan talks about reducing certain chemicals in our rivers and lakes etc ('water') by certain dates. But the measurement is mainly by "proxies" which are not good. And what are the 'Actions' to reduce water pollution from farm animals?
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
The government’s Environmental Improvement Plan was published 1st Jan. It makes lots of “Commitments”, but the “Actions” to achieve them don’t often seem to be enough. Progress is not being properly measured for some ‘Commitments’, so they cannot be serious about them. 🧵 www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) 2025
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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
I’ve been trying to work out if the Government are on track to meet their ambitious target to create or restore 250,000 hectares of habitats outside protected sites by 2030, announced yesterday. Turns out the Government themselves don’t yet have a way of measuring this! www.gov.uk/government/p...
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Our planning policies include requirements to protect and increase permeable surfaces. The increasing problem of flooding must be addressed through planning requirements in the built environment as well as rural areas. Even paving over driveways and gardens should be discouraged.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Green Party policies would help to lessen the effects of flooding because we would increase the area of land devoted to nature, and areas of forestry, both of which are better than urban environment or fields at absorbing water and slowing its movement. Our planning policies address flooding too. 🧵
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
The Green Party has a genuine commitment to keeping within planetary boundaries and policies to implement changes needed. At our Spring Conference in March we will be debating a motion to consolidate and align our policies on forests, including forestry products, protecting ancient woodland + more.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
The 'Nature's Right's Bill' is being proposed by Natalie Bennett. It should be underpinned by 'Planetary Boundaries' as set out by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. The Green Party supports the Planetary Boundaries which should be respected in all areas of policy.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
After insisting for weeks that the Conservatives' proposed law to deport millions of people with indefinite leave to remain is a "serious plan" Kemi Badenoch's spokesman now says it has been scrapped and they will unveil an entirely new plan in the coming weeks
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
New Green Party policy of a target that 25% of every square kilometre should be designated for nature will be applied flexibly in urban areas. Authorities will have time to make plans to increase green spaces, green roofs, more natural driveways etc. Focus will be on the most nature deprived areas.
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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 27/10/2025
AR7 analysis: How much offshore wind will the govt be able to contract at the upcoming CfD auction? It depends on the "strike price", but roughly… 6GW at £70/MWh 5GW at £80/MWh 4GW at £90/MWh THREAD 1/6
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Last month a DEFRA statement said it is "strengthening" it's commitment to biodiversity, with target of 500,000ha of wildlife rich habitat by 2042. It says it "aims" to support the UN '30:30'.This shows that DEFRA is not genuinely committed because 7m ha is needed to achieve 30:30 in UK. 🧵
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The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 08/10/2025
The Green surge continues ... We’ve just passed 90,000 members! 💚 People everywhere are joining the movement for real change. Want hope to be normal again? Join the Green Party today ↩️
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Plans to weaken protections for England's national parks will have ‘disastrous consequences’ say green groups - Letter from 170-plus organisations calls on government to drop proposed changes to planning law @campaign4parks.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Plans to weaken protections for national parks will have ‘disastrous consequences’ say green groups
Exclusive: Letter from 170-plus organisations calls on government to drop proposed changes to planning law
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
The UK government is legally committed to devote 30% of land for nature by 2030, but doesn't have policies to achieve this. An empty promise. Much land designated as "improving" its biodiversity isn't improving according to the Wildlife Trusts and others so shouldn't be counted towards the target.🧵
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
The Green Party is genuinely committed to achieving 30:30 (the UN supported Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework). We have the policies to achieve this including our new policy which says that 25% of each square kilometre in UK should comprise natural or semi-natural habitat.
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
‘Planetary health diet’ could save 40,000 deaths a day, landmark report finds - Diet allows modest meat consumption and would also slash food-related climate emissions by half, says report by 70 leading experts from 35 countries Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Planetary health diet’ could save 40,000 deaths a day, landmark report finds
Diet allows modest meat consumption and would also slash food-related climate emissions by half, says report by 70 leading experts from 35 countries
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
The late Dave Wetzel was a great advocate of Land Value Tax. LVT would help to break down the highly concentrated ownership of land in UK and motivate careful use of land and raise revenue. The current government is unlikely to even implement a wealth tax in the coming budget.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Green Party welcomes government plans to open up the Land Registry more to the public, increasing transparency. Our policy is that the beneficial owner of any UK land should be registered within set period of time, after which land with no registered owner should pass into public ownership.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
The Agriculture Development Advisory Service (part of the Office for Environmental Protection) assessment is that current agri-environment schemes will only reduce nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment pollution by 3 -6%, way below the government target of a 40% reduction from 2018 to 2038.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
The government’s commitment to halve sewage pollution of rivers by 2030, and halve phosphorous by 2028 are weak. Few details of where £104b of private investment to tackle pollution is coming from. Will it just be added to our water bills? The Green Party would nationalise the water companies. 🧵
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Green Party Policy is to increase the area of tree cover in England & Wales to 30-40% within 10 years. Currently 13%. Most EU countries already at 30-40%. International tree cover average is 31%.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
The sea is a very valuable resource which we should all benefit from. The Crown Estate owns the territorial seabed around UK to 22 kilometres out to sea. The Green Party thinks the Crown Estate should bebrought not only under public management, but into public ownership. It should belong to us all.
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
The Green Party agrees with @guyshrubsole that owners of all land must be declared on an open Land Register, including the name and address of the true beneficial owners at the end of any chain of ownership. This is current GP policy. There should be a time limit for registering with consequences.
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Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 02/07/2025
NEW – Chart: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the ‘size of Isle of Wight’ | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/ksxZIvW
UK-wide tree-planting compared to the combined annual goals set out by Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Source: Forest Research, targets set for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Airbus is working hard on a hydrogen fuel-cell aeroplane for regional flights seating 100 passengers. One tidbit: since they already have very low temperatures to store liquid hydrogen on board, adding superconductivity is almost a no-brainer, dramatically reducing energy lost to heat.
spectrum.ieee.org
Airbus's Bold Vision for a Superconducting, Fuel-Cell Airliner Could Change Aviation Forever 🌟✈️ #GreenTech #AirbusSummit
Airbus is leading the charge in the race to create a zero-emission passenger airliner, unveiling bold plans for a superconducting, fuel-cell powered aircraft. With a vision to drastically cut fuel con...
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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
I’ve been looking into this for some time, as has @lewis-winks.bsky.social, but we can’t definitively find out who the faceless new owner of Bridehead Estate is… we need an open Land Registry and for all beneficial owners of trusts & companies (overseas, UK) to be made transparent
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Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Well worth a read 👍 What I call #climate appeasement is just as bad as denial If people don't know how bad things are set to get, how the hell can they be expected to act appropriately? open.substack.com/pub/jacksond...
open.substack.com
Madder Than Expected
– how climate scientists and the IPCC still won’t tell the truth about accelerating climate change.
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Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Rebuilding Nature launched today and aims to create a UK Strategic Nature Network by 2030. The group includes National Highways, Network Rail and more. Its key focus is re-connecting fragmented landscapes to allow the free movement of plants & wildlife and provide resilience against climate change.
rebuildingnature.com
Strategic Nature Network
Rebuilding Nature has the vision to create a Strategic Nature Network by restoring dynamic ecosystems that protect society, delivering 30|30|30
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
This is how UK land is currently used. To protect biodiversity, increase our self-sufficiency in food and increase our timber and fabric production, this must change. Government needs to plan what our land use in 10 years should look like, and create incentives / policies to achieve that transition
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Land Use Policy Working Group Green Party of England & Wales @landusegpew.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
The uses to which land is put shouldn't be left to the free market. There should be a national plan to ensure nature is protected and the proportion of our food we grow ourselves is increased. Targets for change should be delegated to regions. It should be decided locally how the plan is implemented
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
1. This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breathtaking perversity, told in this thread. (There’s a one-page version at the bottom). 🧵
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Tony Firkins @tfirkins.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Or should land be used differently, to avoid the UK's nature depletion, address the climate emergency and produce more of our own food?
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Tony Firkins @tfirkins.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Is land used in the best way in the UK, or is it just the result of our history?
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