In November 2021, the UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, which will help accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Delayed by one year (excruciatingly for the climate) because of the Covid pandemic, it is set to be the first ‘global stocktake’ that was outlined in the Paris Agreement; a chance to be proud of the swift and progressive environmental policies that we’ve put in place since 2015… right?
We have recognised the existential threats and taken fully funded and decisive action to combat the climate crisis, now we can determine the next step up of climate policies to fight mass biodiversity loss and increasing carbon release into the atmosphere to prevent runaway climate change… right?
I wish. In truth, it’s been 5 years of dithering, delaying and distraction. Environmental issues and carbon emissions have consistently been side-lined on the political agenda and their actual importance overlooked. Arguably, until Boris Johnson’s recent environmental pledges. In a move that 2 years ago would have been unthinkable, the PM has announced his 10-point green plan which creates 250,000 jobs in a £12bn self-styled ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ which includes a ban on combustion engine sales by 2030, 30,000 hectares of trees planted every year and a pledge to make London ‘the global centre of green finance’.
Whilst these plans might be considered ambitious for someone who has completely failed to vote in favour of climate policies in his political career (receiving a climate score of 0% by the Guardian) and has received over £30,000 in donations by climate science sceptic lobbyists, Johnson’s plans have been condemned as “a pale imitation” of the green stimulus package needed by Ed Miliband and “vague and underpowered” by Caroline Lucas. She said, “This is a shopping list, not a plan to address the climate emergency, and it commits only a fraction of the necessary resources”. The programme is billed as costing £12bn, with Downing Street saying £8bn of this is new (Labour has challenged this, suggesting only £4bn of this spending is new).
In any case, it is less than Labour’s more ambitious plan for a green stimulus package involving £30bn spent over 18 months and much less ambitious than France and Germany who are investing tens of billions of Euros in face of their jobs emergency and the wider climate emergency. Even Labour’s plan with over 2 times the funding over a shorter timeframe and with plans to expand energy efficiency and retrofit programmes, accelerating planned investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and upgraded green transport systems arguably don’t go far enough. These plans certainly aren’t as ambitious as previous policy pledges and don’t recognise the sheer societal transformation necessary to narrowly avoid the worse effects of ecosystem collapse and the climate crisis.
The thing is, the environment is not messaging that Labour is prioritising at the moment, preferring instead to continue with a self-destructive war on anti-Semitism and to nimbly challenge the government on its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike the 2017 and 2019 Labour manifesto in which green climate policy was fundamental, Labour is failing to take the helm on what were some of its most popular policies in the last decade. If Boris Johnson can capitalise on this moving into the 2024 general election by convincing the electorate he is serious about the environment, then he has a major advantage moving forward. Environmental policy is only going to get more important in the social and political agenda in the next few decades, eventually dominating discourse the same way Brexit has. Exposing the vast flaws in our system the same way the Covid pandemic has.
COP26 is likely to be Boris Johnson’s most significant international event of his time as Prime Minister. The green package falls short of the UK being an international leader in climate policy by far. If we are serious about the climate emergency, this must change very quickly. How can we, as a country, be credible and influential on the environment if we want to lead the world by example?
For the moment, I believe it is worthwhile being (very) cautiously optimistic when it comes to Tory environmental promises, especially when their primary intent is to be appealing to the public and not to address the imminent climate emergency which will shape this century.
Further reading –
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/the-last-chance
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