"You have a home with us": Lib Dems make COP31 pitch to moderate Green members who put environment first

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

The Liberal Democrats have written an open letter to Green Party members as COP31 gets under way in Antalya, telling those who feel nature and climate change has slipped down their party's priorities that they have a home with the Liberal Democrats.

In an open letter, Liberal Democrat Energy Security and Net Zero Spokesperson Pippa Heylings MP, who has worked alongside UN climate and nature negotiations since 2010, sets out the party's offer: green homes as standard, a regulator with real teeth to end sewage dumping, a £1 billion boost for nature-friendly farming, and a cross-party plan to prepare Britain for extreme weather.

The letter comes as Reform and the Conservatives pledge to scrap net zero measures and the Climate Change Act, and after the Labour Prime Minister failed to respond to Ed Davey and Pippa Heylings’ call to bring party leaders together on the climate crisis.

Liberal Democrat Energy Security and Net Zero Spokesperson, Pippa Heylings MP, said:

"I've spent my career at the sharp end of the climate crisis, from communities fighting to save the Amazon to the negotiating rooms of COP. I know what's at stake, and I have seen what real leadership looks like.

"Thousands of people joined the Greens because they wanted to stop climate change and protect our rivers, wildlife and our countryside. If you feel your party has drifted away from that, you're not wrong to want more, and you'll find a warm welcome with the Liberal Democrats.

"With Reform and the Conservatives tearing up the climate consensus and Labour too quick to give up or call nature a “blocker to growth”, nature needs champions in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats enshrined the environment in the opening paragraph of our Constitution’s preamble. We will always put climate and nature first."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. Full text of Pippa Heylings' open letter here.
2. COP31 is taking place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026.
3. In August 2026, Ed Davey and Pippa Heylings wrote to the Prime Minister calling for a cross-party meeting of party leaders on the UK's response to extreme weather: The Guardian, 31 August 2026
4. Liberal Democrat Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Spokesperson Tim Farron MP set out the party's environmental record and ambitions: The Observer, "Lib Dems are the only real green party in Britain, says Tim Farron"