The party’s co-leader Jonathan Bartley told the conference in Newport last week that a 10 year mobilisation programme is needed to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the UK. If elected, the party would implement a Green New Deal including radical measures to cut emissions from transport.

“We’d scrap the Government’s road building programme, and use Vehicle Excise Duty to deliver free bus travel for everyone right across the country,” he said, adding that this would incentivise people to get out of their cars and onto “affordable, accessible, state of the art transport”.

He also called for “the slash and burn of High Speed 2” to be “halted in its tracks”, and said: “We’d spend that £70Bn on new local transport infrastructure for every local community. Electrification of rail, new lines and buses.”

Also speaking at the conference the party’s deputy leader Amelia Womack urged an end to the “relentless growth of flights” and launched a petition against airport expansion.

“Across the country, airports are lobbying hard to get through proposals to expand, whether it’s new runways or reducing restrictions against flight times, or huge dual carriageways to get more people to the airport,” she said.

“Let’s call time on airport growth and demand an end to government subsidies for the aviation industry.”

Green Party candidate for Mayor of London Sian Berry told the conference that the capital’s current administration is falling short on preventing “climate chaos”, and criticised plans to build the Silvertown road tunnel.

Among her pledges is to deliver a “bigger, smarter” low emission zone across all of London.

(Photograph: Highways England)