View this post on the web at [link removed]

‘What do I want from COP30? I want leaders who will look their children in the eye and say: We chose courage. We stopped subsidising destruction. We stood with the global majority who did not cause this crisis.’ - Zack Polanski
COP30 cannot be another talking shop. We literally can’t afford that.
It cannot be another summit where leaders wring their hands while fossil fuel giants toast record profits. This is the decade that decides whether we have a liveable planet, and the decade where already people can’t afford to heat their homes, eat good food, and live with dignity. These two fights, for climate justice and for economic fairness, are two sides of the same coin.
Right now, families across Britain are paying the price of political cowardice. Our energy bills soar because successive governments have shackled us to gas. Food prices rise because climate breakdown is wrecking harvests. Floods destroy homes while oil giants pocket billions in subsidies. £17.5 billion a year [ [link removed] ] of public money funding the very chaos that’s pushing people into poverty. It’s obscene.
COP30 in Brazil must mark a global turning point. We need courage, not compromise. Governments must commit to keeping all new fossil fuels in the ground and instead sign up to a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. A plan to phase out dirty energy while rapidly scaling up renewables that are clean, affordable, and owned by communities.
We must finally make polluters pay. A Climate Damages Tax, levied on fossil fuel extraction, would ensure that the corporations who caused this crisis help fund the recovery from it. Those funds should flow to countries and communities already paying the steepest price for a problem they did not create.
And here at home, we need to lead by example. End every fossil fuel handout, once and for all. Invest that money instead in insulating homes, building green public transport, and creating hundreds of thousands of secure, well-paid jobs in renewables. The so-called “cost of living crisis” isn’t an economic inevitability, it’s a political choice. We can choose clean energy that cuts bills forever, not dirty fuels that make billionaires richer.
Climate justice must mean social justice. It’s not enough to cut emissions; we must ensure that the transition is fair, both globally and locally. That means public grants, not loans, for the Global South, and a Just Transition at home that supports workers and communities as we move away from oil and gas.
Finally, we need an action plan to end deforestation by 2030. Forests are the lungs of our planet, we cannot keep breathing if we keep cutting them down. That Starmer would turn his back on this tells us everything we need to know about Labour’s commitment to the environment.
So, what do I want from COP30? I want leaders who will look their children in the eye and say: We chose courage. We stopped subsidising destruction. We stood with the global majority who did not cause this crisis. We built something better, a green economy that works for people and the planet.
This is our moment to prove that climate action is key to freedom from poverty, pollution, and fear. The future is still ours to write, but only if we act now.
- Zack Polanski is Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
The Best for Britain Wire is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Unsubscribe [link removed]?