MORE than half of 25 to 34-year-olds surveyed by the Fairtrade Foundation said that they would be more likely to vote in a future general election for a Government that upheld the UK’s climate, the charity has reported.
Fifty-four per cent of the 25- to 34-year-olds surveyed and 44 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds agreed with the statement.
Kantar surveyed 1280 people in the UK (aged 16 and over) online last month on behalf of the Fairtrade Foundation.
The survey also found that 76 per cent of respondents believed “businesses should be required to protect human rights and reduce environmental harm”, and 50 per cent of respondents thought that businesses were “not doing enough to tackle climate change”.
Two out of three (68 per cent) said that they cared about “the impact of their shopping habits on people around the world”.
The Fairtrade Foundation’s advocacy director, Marie Rumsby, said: “This latest research suggests climate action is becoming a defining issue for younger voters, who are increasingly looking for leaders willing to protect the environment and the future of the foods they rely on.”
She said that the farmers who were “feeding and powering the global economy are already experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis”, despite not having caused it.
“With public support for tougher corporate accountability growing, the Government must act on this opportunity to match climate ambition with fairer rules for global supply chains through a new responsible business law,” she continued.
The Fairtrade Foundation has urged the UK Government to implement legally binding legislation requiring businesses to address human rights and environmental harm in their supply chains, referred to as Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) legislation. The charity said that farmers and workers should be directly consulted in policy-making, the design of new laws, and climate finance.
The Fairtrade Foundation also called for “climate resilience investment”, which supports farmers and workers who were facing the worst impact of climate change, and “protection against costs being pushed on to producers, so farmers and workers are not made to pay for compliance”.
Ms Rumsby continued: “Voluntary action from business is no longer enough. We need urgent action from the Government and clear rules that hold companies to account, protect people and the planet, and ensure the cost of climate change does not fall on those least able to pay.”
As part of its Do It Fair campaign, the Fairtrade Foundation is launching a Fair On The Planet initiative to highlight how farmers growing products such as coffee, tea, cocoa, and bananas already face extreme heat, erratic rainfall, flooding, and crop disease as a direct result of climate change.
fairtrade.net