"None of the above" is tempting, but Greens and Lib Dems deserve green business vote

I know the first rule of political commentary has always been to embrace the hyperbole, but even taking that into account, has there ever been a more depressing moment in UK political history to cast your vote?

As the UK prepares to go to the polls in tomorrow's European and local elections, the choice appears to be between a Labour party in full-scale meltdown and two opposition parties whose systematic abuse of the expenses system – moat cleaning and all – has been just as craven and self serving as the party they are trying to replace.

Mass protest votes are expected with the Tories likely to be the big winners, alongside fringe parties in the form of the obnoxious Little Englanders at UKIP, the repellent racists at the BNP and the admirable, if still marginal, Greens.

So who deserves to get the green business vote?

First up, we can discount UKIP and the mouth breathers at the BNP for reasons so blindingly obvious it is not worth expending the energy needed to spell them out.

In contrast, the Tories have made the arguably the biggest play for green voters in recent years, and with their opposition to Heathrow expansion and plans to effectively ban new coal-fired power plants without carbon capture systems, they had managed to successfully outflank Labour on a number of environmental issues.

But, as the old saying goes, you judge a man by the company he keeps, and David Cameron's recent decision to line up alongside a bunch of climate change deniers as part of a new right-wing group in the European Parliament will not only dilute the UK's influence within the EU at a time when the fight against global warming requires more, not less, international co-operation, it will also undo all the work he has done to brand the party as green and progressive.

There are also still wider questions, many of which will resurface at a general election, over whether a party that remains wedded to low taxation and small government can ever deliver the massive public sector projects that are required to help decarbonise the economy. The commitment to build a high-speed rail network in the UK is a step in the right direction, but many environmentally minded voters will remain sceptical that Cameron would ever deliver the big changes in legislation and shifts in taxation that would be required to deliver deep cuts in emissions. In short, he's not about to fund incentives for electric cars with eye-watering taxes on 4x4s.

Making the case for voting Labour, meanwhile, is all but impossible given its recent record. Its efforts on climate change may be one of the rare bright spots in an increasingly moribund party, but too many of its environmental policies are characterised by the same procrastination and contradictions that have brought the Brown premiership to its knees.

There are plenty of reasons for the green business community to stick with Labour, not least among them the fact that the Department for Energy and Climate Change is looking increasingly influential and the sumer promises to bring radical strategies to build a low-carbon economy and increase renewable energy capacity. It is hardly the legacy he would have wanted, but the establishment of DECC could be one of the few moments of brilliance of Brown's surely short-lived time in the top job. Moreover, the climate change bill is undoubtedly one of the crowning achievements of this government and ministers appear serious about tackling climate change, Heathrow expansion aside.

But at the same time, Whitehall apparatchiks have repeatedly sought to water down EU environmental legislation and the culture of endless consultation exercises that has become a defining feature of the Brown government has left many within the renewables and clean tech sectors almost tearful with frustration. The government has a track record of getting it right eventually, as it has done with increased support for offshore wind and plans to introduce a feed-in tariff, but it all takes far too long. With other countries proving far bolder in their willingness to offer incentives to low-carbon businesses, the UK's competitiveness in the fast-emerging global clean tech market is being steadily eroded.

That leaves the Lib Dem and the Greens, for so long not so much the bridesmaids of the political scene, as that friend from work sitting at the back of the church who your fiance has never actually met but you thought you better invite anyway.

Of the three main parties, the Lib Dems have done the most to win the green vote. They have the most ambitious climate change strategy by some distance and combine Tory opposition to Heathrow expansion and coal power with Labour's willingness to engage with the EU. They promise generous clean tech incentives, tough legislation, and support for demanding carbon targets, while none of the gloss has yet been knocked off by the unpleasant business of actually governing.

For the hard green voter, the Green Party is more attractive than at any point in its history. It has worked to expand from being a single issue party, while still offering the most ambitious low-carbon programme of any political party. What's more, in European elections the old argument that to vote Green is to waste your vote does not stack up. In Brussels, the Greens can team up with their counterparts from all over Europe, applying real pressure on the mainstream to adopt sustainable policies.

The business community will be understandably wary of a party that has always been pretty explicitly anti-business, but opposition to nuclear power aside, the Greens do now appear to have a more realistic view of the role the corporate world must play in building a low-carbon economy. A protest vote for the Greens does signal to the main parties that there is a large constituency for which environmental policy is a defining consideration.

So, there we have it. When it comes to voting on environmental grounds it is only tribal loyalty, rather than actual performance, that will secure the two main parties votes. And while the current state of politics makes it feel that "none of the above" is the only rational option, it is the Lib Dems and, if you buy their recent transformation, the Greens that have done the most to deserve the green vote.