What are Oxford East's candidates saying about climate change?

A summary of the Environmental Crisis Hustings by Cécile Degiovanni

Last Thursday, the General Election candidates for Oxford East gathered to declare their plans for tackling the climate and ecological emergency if elected to parliament. They faced questions from the audience which we have summarised in a table for ease of comparison! We hope its a useful tool in helping you to vote for the party that carries out the climate action you think would be most effective in tackling the crisis.
Broadly speaking the Conservative candidate emphasised the role of technology and innovation rather than regulation which might be perceived as "Punishing" certain sections of society. The Green party is in favour of the highest level of financial investment in tackling the crisis whilst the Lib Dem candidate presented his party as the one that balanced idealism and pragmatism. The Labour party argued that a Conservative government would render net-zero targets impossible and therefore presented voting Labour, in order to keep the Conservatives out of power as the only viable means of fulfilling these targets. 

Here are the opening statements of the candidates followed by the table with questions from the audience:
Main features of the speakers’ positions
Suzanne Bartington, Conservative, representing Louise Staite:

• our program is constructive, not idealistic; based on innovation, not regulation; and based on collaboration with private sector and charity sector
• we should draw on past successes
• we need to speak to everyone, including the kind of people who don’t come to meetings such as this, and make sure our policies won’t penalize them
• nationalisation is no answer (currently the public services are actually the most polluting ones, e.g. NHS)
• we should fight the idea that Left is good and Right is bad when it comes to environment

David Williams, Green:

• The Greens have been in this area for 40 years and they have the best planned program to actually stop global warming
• it is not Brexit elections, it is climate crisis elections
• the 2030 target is achievable: money can be found with political will just as it was found for the banks in 2008
• this is an emergency and the problem will not be solved by incremental steps, you need to put a lot a money and efforts into it
• Regulation and no privatisation

Tom Hayes, Labour, representing Anneliese Dodds:

• this common fight is a great occasion to build community
• we must have both a local and a national approach
• we call for a Green industrial revolution
• vote for Labour to keep out a Conservative government, who would make it impossible to achieve a 2030 net-zero target

Alistair Fernie, Liberal Democrats:

• LibDem is the only party with a comprehensive plan, that covers all sectors
• Importance of the international dimension: we should take into account the fact that developing countries are first in line for the climate crisis + we should work with everyone to achieve significant effects, and be an inspiring example
• this is one of the reasons why we should not leave the EU: if we stay we can participate in the debates and push the EU towards more ambitious climate action
• the devil is in the details; you need policies that are based on fact and science.
• the 2030 target is not achievable with our current level of technology.