You can now search for environmental information by postcode and constituency
A dedicated website allows anyone to look up and explore climate-related information about where they live, shining a light on the records of politicians in the run up to the General Election.
Built by Friends of the Earth, the idea is to hold parliamentary candidates to account over their plans, promises and proposals pertaining to the environment.
Information stored includes performance on energy efficiency measures such as heat and improved insulation, which can help households with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and contribute to localised emissions reductions. Based on this metric, 8 of the 10 constituencies that had made the most progress in this area were held by the Labour Party, with the majority in London.
By comparison, 40 constituencies across England and Wales have housing stock where 60% is in need of essential energy saving upgrades. Of these, 23 seats were help by the Conservatives, 12 by Labour, and two Plaid Cymru, and a further three were newly crested through changing constituency boundaries.
Another major cause for concern with the UK environment, water pollution measurements are also included on the postcode look-up tool. 21 constituencies saw more than 4,000 incidents of sewage dumping last year alone. Most were Conservative seats, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Richmond & Northallerton, where 33,000 hours of sewage discharge had occurred during that time. 72% of constituencies in England with less than 5% tree cover were also held by the Tories, although those with the most tree cover – which were all in London and the South East – were also home to Conservative MPs.
By comparison, high air pollution areas were far more likely to be held by Labour, with the party accounting for 11 of the 12 worst performing constituencies. Beyond this, 213 areas were threatened by extreme heat events – defined as temperatures above 27.5C for more than five days – including all 75 London constituencies. 275 areas were also at risk of flooding in at least one neighbourhood, while 555 had a flood risk across at least 50% of their boundaries.
You can find the postcode look-up tool here.
More on climate change and net zero:
The UK environment deserves better than the Conservative manifesto
Chartered Institute for Environmental Health launches general election campaign
Image: Mika Baumeister