The Green Party has thrown its manifesto into the ring ahead of next month’s general election, promising change to create a greener, fairer world.

The Green Party says it’s vital to address the huge and growing contribution that private vehicle transport makes to our carbon emissions

Entitled Real Hope, Real Change, the manifesto sets out how a tax on the richest in society will be used to fund improvements to health, housing, transport and the green economy, creating a “Fairer, Greener country”.

Announced by co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay at an event in Hove, the 46-page document following the launch of the Tory and Lib Dems manifestos and makes some headline offerings on NHS investment, tax rises on big earners and scrapping university tuition fees.

Equally bold are the pledges for transport as the party says it’s vital to address the huge and growing contribution that private vehicle transport makes to our carbon emissions.

It wants to see all petrol and diesel vehicles replaced by electric vehicles within a decade – supported by an end to sales of new petrol- and diesel-fuelled vehicles by 2027 and an end to the use of petrol and diesel vehicles on the road by 2035. That’s a step up from the Lib Dems plan to revert to the 2030 ICE ban while the Tories are sticking with their 2035 end date.

It would push for an extensive vehicle scrappage scheme to support this rapid transition to EVs, with funding rising to £5bn per year by the end of parliament, supported by the rapid rollout of EV charging points. This would also deliver more government support for ordinary car users and small businesses to replace their vehicles as diesel and petrol engines are phased out. There would also be More support for firms using heavy goods vehicles to transition away from internal combustion engines and make greater use of rail freight.

But the party wants to cut overall vehicle use, warning that it’s “time to shift the transport system away from cars and roads”.

Measures to support this would include restoring the fuel-duty escalator and, as revenue declines with the switch to electric vehicles, exploring the introduction of road pricing, in stark contrast to the Tory plans to stop it.

The Greens also said they would oppose all new road building plans, make road tax proportional to vehicle weight, and ensure a 20mph default speed limit on roads in all built-up areas; another complete contrast to the Tory manifesto.

Instead roads would be repurposed for safe streets and active travel, adopting Adopt Active Travel England’s objective for 50% of trips in England’s towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.

This would be enabled by spending £2.5bn a year on new cycleways and footpaths, built using sustainable materials.

Greens MPs will also champion better, cheaper public transport, increasing annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel.

In total, the party said it would invest in an additional £19bn over five years to improve public transport, support electrification and create new cycleways and footpaths.

The Greens also pledged to bring the railways back into public ownership and tackle aviation emissions by implementing a frequent-flyer levy, plus a ban on domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train. The party would also halt the expansion of new airport capacity.

Campaign group Transport & Environment has welcomed many tenets of the manifesto.

Matt Finch, UK policy manager at the advocacy group, said: “The Green Party’s commitment to a Clean Air Act will ensure communities across the country can breathe easy, and the party has recognised that aviation’s emissions are out of control.

“There are bold proposals to support people to make the switch to electric vehicles, as well as proposals to tackle the rise of SUVs and give further support to firms to move away from polluting heavy goods vehicles.

“Although actions to address emissions from ships are completely missing, overall this is a strong manifesto for cleaning up the UK’s biggest emitting sector.”

The full Green Party manifesto is online at this link.