The Liberal Democrats have written an open letter to Green members, telling those who feel nature and climate have slipped down the party’s priorities that “you have a home with us”.
In the letter, published as COP31 gets underway in Antalya, Türkiye, Liberal Democrat energy security and net zero spokesperson Pippa Heylings wrote: “If nature and climate are why you got into politics, you have a home with us.”
Heylings, the MP for South Cambridgeshire, told Green members: “You joined the Greens to protect our rivers, our wildlife and our countryside. Many of you now feel that nature has slipped down its list of priorities. You are not alone, and you are not wrong to want a party that puts it first.”
She added: “We are not perfect, and we won’t always agree on everything. But on the things that matter most to the future of our planet, I believe we share far more than divides us.”
Heylings is a member of the Green Liberal Democrats, an official environmental group within the party. It aims to “promote a green approach to policy formation within the Liberal Democrats” and “develop links with the wider green movement.” Before entering frontline politics, she worked at the Ministry of Environment in Zanzibar from 1991 to 1995 and as an environmental education advisor to the Kenya Wildlife Service and African Wildlife Foundation from 1991 to 1996.
Heylings actually joined the Green Party in 2012 before leaving, reportedly over its “anti-markets stance.”
Heylings’ letter comes after the Green Party backed a motion last month declaring Zionism a form of racism. The motion passed on 4 October at the Greens’ conference in Brighton by 1,022 votes to 813, despite the opposition of senior Green figures such as Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay. Zack Polanski, the leader of the Greens since September 2025, did not take part in the vote, having left conference early to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, which he went on to lose.
In her letter, Heylings sets out five environmental commitments championed by the Liberal Democrats. She cites the Sunshine Bill, which would require developers to fit new-builds with solar panels and heat pumps. The bill was brought forward by Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, in October 2024.
The government declined to support the bill at the time, but Wilkinson’s campaign was ultimately successful. In June 2025, the government announced it would incorporate the mandate for solar panels on the “vast majority” of new build homes into the upcoming Future Homes Standard. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, described the move as “just common sense”.
On water, Heylings said the Liberal Democrats were fighting for a regulator with “real teeth” to replace Ofwat, with water companies run “for the public benefit rather than shareholders”.
The letter also vows a £1 billion uplift to funding for nature-friendly farming schemes, with support for regenerative farming and a national “call to store” programme to help farms withstand drought and flood. Heylings added that the party would seek a cross-party national plan for heatwaves, drought and flooding.
Heylings said Reform and the Conservatives had “both vowed to scrap net zero and the Climate Change Act”, and accused Labour of “yielding ground on our environmental targets as they chase Reform votes”.
She said Labour had cut funding for heat pump subsidies, “may be rolling back EV targets” and had said it was considering approving the Rosebank oil field.
She maintained that when she and Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, wrote to the prime minister asking him to bring party leaders together to protect Britain from extreme weather, “we were met with silence”.
In comments issued alongside the letter’s publication, Heylings stated: “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…
“The Liberal Democrats enshrined the environment in the opening paragraph of our Constitution’s preamble. We will always put climate and nature first.”
‘You are welcome’: Lib Dem MPs urge Greens to defect after ‘Zionism is racism’ vote
