Too late to save environment, says Green Party co-founder

One of the founders of what would become the Green Party of England and Wales has declared "it's too late" to save the environment.

Michael Benfield, who helped set up the new political movement in the 1970s, said he believed the "battle for the world's environmental survival" was "at this moment, lost".

Speaking at an event to mark the party's 50th anniversary, Mr Benfield told the BBC he had become "somewhat of a doomsayer" about efforts to protect the environment.

"I think we have succeeded in helping to educate... but we have failed in dealing with the battle for environmental survival.

"I'll say to you now that it's too late. The battle for the world's environmental survival is, at this moment, lost," he said.

The scale of the solutions which he believed were necessary would be simply too unpalatable for any political party to propose, he argues.

The focus now, he thought, would have to be on mitigation.

"It doesn't mean to say that we can't perhaps do other things to put things right, but it's a very dire situation that we have," Mr Benfield said.

He was speaking 50 years since the first public meeting of PEOPLE, which would become the Ecology Party in 1975 and the Green Party in 1985.

The group was formed in a Coventry pub by Mr Benfield, fellow estate agent Freda Sanders and solicitors Lesley Whittaker and her late husband Tony.

The three surviving founders of what would turn out to be Europe's first green political party were among those who gathered at the London School of Economics to mark the milestone.

In a speech to the gathering, Green MP Caroline Lucas, warned: "We don't have another 50 years."

She said: "We are living through maybe one of the most consequential decades of human history, which I appreciate is a very big thing to say.

"The climate and nature crises are more critical than ever, and it feels to me that what falls upon the shoulders of the Green Party is a most extraordinary responsibility but an awesome opportunity as well."

Deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales Zack Polanski said it was "vital" to be "honest about the urgency of the situation", but cautioned against underestimating "the importance of hope alongside practical action".

"I think that's the vital space the party occupies today, which is both that vision for a hopeful future and tangible real-life examples of where we're making change," he said.