SIAN Berry, co-Leader of the Green Party, is the main speaker at a virtual meeting of Shropshire Green Party.

As well as being co-Leader of the national Green Party, Ms Berry is also a member of the London Assembly and a borough councillor.

She has written several books including ‘Fifty ways to help the planet’ and ‘Mend it! 400 easy repairs for everyday items.’

Her topic on Saturday will be ‘Thinking globally, acting locally’, and she will answer questions from party members.

Her visit comes in a week when the Green Party in south Shropshire welcomed the decision to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2013 but said that otherwise the Government is not being bold enough in tackling climate change.

The party says that the green initiatives promised by the Government do not go nearly far enough.

“It is astonishing and disappointing that there were no announcements to tackle emissions from food growing, production, manufacturing, and our diets,” said Hilary Wendt, Green party co-ordinator in south Shropshire.

“The evidence is clear, we can’t limit warming to 1.5 degrees or achieve net zero without addressing food.

“Food should be at the heart of a green recovery from Covid-19 and this really matters in a rural county like ours. Growing, manufacturing and buying sustainable food delivers more, better jobs .

“For instance, if we grew more food using agro-ecological techniques like organic, we could greatly increase biodiversity, produce more of our own fruit and veg, and increase rural employment.

“This kind of investment is greatly needed at the moment, as so many of our local farmers in Shropshire have suffered so badly since the Covid-19 outbreak, and are at further risk from Brexit.”

Ms Wendt said that the damage to the environment is as a result of the constant pressure for economic growth that is bad for the country.

“Our climate and nature emergencies are being driven by a relentless focus on a form of economic growth that is damaging people’s health and wellbeing, as well as the health of the environment, so in the view of the Shropshire Green Party, whilst there are individual aspects to welcome, as a whole the Prime Minister’s announcement doesn’t add up to the ambitious reset we think the UK needs,” added Ms Wendt, who was the Green Party candidate in Ludlow at the 2019 General Election.