Local Currency Green Party of England and Wales

Local Currency Green Party of England and Wales

The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party founded on the principle of protecting the environment from various threats, generally perpetuated by humans.

The party is active in the discussion on climate change. They advocate a “contraction and convergence” model of reducing carbon emissions, and promote the idea of carbon quotas and trading carbon credits. They oppose nuclear energy as a response to climate change.
Some of the policies supported by the party is an end to all animal experimentation. They advocate replacing all animals in experiments with non-animal alternatives. The party also advocates ending any sort of factory farming.

Other agricultural policies the party supports is the expansion of small, organic, free-range farms. They are opposed to and would like to ban all intensive, large scale farming, including fish farming.

They oppose all kinds of genetically modified foods, and advocated what they call “fair trade” over “free trade.” Fair trade focuses on empowering producers and paying a fair price for goods, particularly those produced by marginal workers in underprivileged countries.

Economically, the party rejects the idea that economic growth is the single indicator of progress. As the planet has finite resources, the idea that endless growth is infinitely sustainable is not reasonable.

They advocate an economy that considers sustainability over the long term rather than instant gratification and hyper-consumption.

The party head, Dr. Caroline Lucas, wrote a book with the late Dr. Mike Woodin, outlining an economic localization, rather than globalization, of the economic means of communities.

This approach advocates “democratizing” the banking system by creating a system of community banks that are publicly owned. The party also advocates informal local economies using local currency or similar means of trade.

They have proposed a “citizen’s income;” a base weekly salary that each citizen would get, regardless of need or means.