Jono Adams (Associate Director, Anthesis) provides an analysis of what the UK General Election may have to offer for the environment

Scarcely mentioned in the leadership debates, a number of prominent figures are saying that environmental issues have not had the air time they deserve.

In a recent BBC Radio 4 interview, well known Gaia theorist James Lovelock said he was “shocked” at the lack of coverage of climate change. His views were echoed by Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, who said there had been a "total lack" of vision on the issue.

Even the Green Party have felt the heat with Greenpeace saying that they should be using their new found status to say more on the environment.

Despite this silence, environmental policies are liberally scattered throughout all the party manifestos.

We have taken a good look at these and rated each party’s policies in five key areas; energy & climate change, green economy, nature conservation, resource management and international leadership.

With the high chance of a coalition, environmental policy is one of those areas likely to be negotiated behind closed doors as the new government is shaped. By summing our ratings for different parties, we have attempted to identify which combination of coalition partners is most likely to deliver in each policy area.  With each party rating between zero and five stars, we have considered any coalition which scores seven, or more, points to be a viable collaboration.

As a starting point, we have assumed that all coalitions are formed around either Labour or the Conservatives (even when they don’t themselves score particularly well). For each policy area we have tried – where the numbers permit it - to provide some degree of choice.

Not surprisingly, coalitions including the Greens score highest but in some cases other combinations also meet or exceed the ‘seven star’ threshold. Clearly, there are many larger coalitions that could also make the grade. Feel free to mix and match the parties to see how your own ‘dream team’ performs.