Transport
From roads choked with traffic, to expensive privatised buses, to the risk of even more planet-destroying planes overhead, transport in Leeds just doesn't work for communities or the climate.
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We're calling for Leeds to be truly a city where you don't need a car. This means a fully integrated, public-owned, electric bus service. This means a reimagined city centre free of cars. This means people choose to walk, cycle or get the bus because those options are better and cheaper.
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We'll be campaigning on all these issues and more, and supporting other groups such as GALBA who are fighting the ludicrous expansion of Leeds-Bradford Airport.
Leeds has some of the poorest quality housing in the country which is expensive, insecure, and difficult to heat.
Luckily, homes which are warm and cosy are the healthier and more comfortable to live in, are cheaper to run, and cause the least impact on the climate and save money for the NHS.
We're calling for a programme of mass retrofit to improve homes in Leeds. This has the added benefit of bringing thousands of new skilled, climate positive jobs to the city which are badly needed.
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When it comes to the new homes we need, the city is based on a model of development which serves corporations at the expense of the people. We support the expansion of community-led housing such as through cooperatives, co-housing and low-impact communities, and we're calling for all new homes in the city to be whole-life zero or negative carbon.
Housing
Food &
Resources
Our food system is extremely damaging, to our health and to our planet. We need the people of Leeds to be able choose better quality, lower impact, healthier food which is affordable.
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We're calling for a relocalisation of food production, farmed through regenerative practices which restore the soils, capture carbon, and support wildlife.
We'll be campaigning to help community food growing projects, community supported agriculture, local food cooperatives and farmers markets which reduce the carbon footprint of diets by lowering food miles and food waste.
Nature &
the
Environment
As a society we are destroying the foundations of our natural world at an unprecedented rate.
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We are calling for Leeds to be a nature-friendly city where biodiversity is flourishing, and communities come together to work on greening projects which support a healthy ecosystem, help tackle air pollution, and capture carbon .
We'll be campaigning for Leeds to develop a network of green corridors, urban nature and spaces for nature close to where people live.
Economy
(the Leeds doughnut)
The climate crisis is an economic and social crisis. So much of the inequality, deprivation, and carbon emissions of Leeds are down to a fundamentally flawed concept of what a city economy is, and who it should be working for.
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We're calling for an end to outdated economic models based around meaningless notions of growth and GDP. We want to bring new ideas to the city such as the 'Doughnut Economics' championed by Kate Raworth. This reimagines the idea of an economy as being how we thrive and prosper as a society whilst staying within our planetary boundaries.
The voices and actions of the young people of Leeds have led the way in fighting for climate action and a just transition. But the education system is failing them and all of us until it properly addresses the reality of the climate, ecological and social emergency.
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Our Future Leeds Schools aims to bring about engagement with climate change by schools from the grassroots. The aim is to organise and equip school students, parents, teachers, support staff and community groups to bring our schools up to scratch in four areas: decarbonising; curriculum; staff training; and student well-being.