Climate crisis topping UK election agenda is 'unprecedented' change

Environmentalists say such political focus on green issues 'unthinkable' just five years ago

The climate emergency has risen to the top of the UK's election agenda in a way that would have been "unthinkable" even five years ago, leading environmentalists have said, predicting that it augurs a permanent change in British politics.

On Wednesday, Labour took the unprecedented move of putting green issues as the top section of its manifesto, the first time one of the UK's two major parties has done so. Jeremy Corbyn led the appeal to voters with policies including an 11bn windfall tax on oil and gas companies, a million new jobs in a "green industrial revolution" and commitments on moving to a net-zero carbon economy.