WORKINGTON’S Labour candidate has launched her party’s environmental manifesto pledging to plant two billion new trees to tackle the climate emergency.

Sue Hayman, who is shadow environment secretary, launched the party’s Plan for Nature yesterday at Walkmill Community Woodland, in Moresby Parks.

Proposals include 10 new National Parks, £1.2bn to restore natural habitats such as woodland, grasslands, meadows, peatbogs and salt marshes, with an extra annual £75 million funding boost to the new and existing National Park authorities to help manage the programme.

Mrs Hayman said: “Labour’s Plan for Nature provides the vision needed to kick start the recovery and protection of our natural world. Our strategy will not just work to undo years of Tory neglect and damage to our environment, but will actively improve environmental outcomes, creating a more accessible, clean and green environment for generations to come.”

The party said according to Rewilding Britain, nature restoration plans could store up to 47 million tonnes of CO2 each year by 2050 – more than Finland’s annual emissions.

Candidate sites for the ten new National Parks include the North Pennines in eastern Cumbria. Criteria for the selection of the new Nature Parks will be informed, in part, by the current state of environmental degradation, potential for carbon sequestration and biodiversity net gain.

By 2030, Labour’s ambition is for 75 per cent of the English population will live within half an hour of a National Park or an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Labour says 20,000 new green jobs will be created in forestry management and timber trades as part of its plans for one million green jobs under its Green Industrial Revolution programme for government.

Mrs Hayman said: “This election is our last chance to tackle the climate and environment emergency, and we need to act on a local, national, and international level. Labour will expand and restore habitats and plant trees so that we can create natural solutions to bring down emissions and allow our wildlife to flourish.

“Labour created the first national parks, and we’ll create ten more, giving people the access to the green spaces so vital for our collective wellbeing and mental health.

“Years of Tory austerity have had a devastating impact on our natural world, with the UK set to miss almost all of its international biodiversity targets. Wildlife populations are collapsing, ecosystems are breaking down, and temperatures are rising at an alarming rate.

“Labour’s Plan for Nature provides the vision needed to kick start the recovery and protection of our natural world.

“Our strategy will not just work to undo years of Tory neglect and damage to our environment, but will actively improve environmental outcomes, creating a more accessible, clean and green environment for generations to come.”