Today 9 of the country’s most significant environmental lobby groups published their annual review of the environmental policies and actions of the three main political parties. This report entitled ‘Fit for Purpose’ Fit for the Future found a decline in the commitment of all three parties to environmental issues over the last year.
Steve Hale of the Green Alliance said on behalf of the Green Standard;
- ‘The government’s approach is contradictory and incoherent; this is epitomised by John Hutton’s failure to rule-out new unabated coal power stations which will undermine the government’s own climate change targets.
- The Conservatives are strong on presentation but weak on substance; they must develop firm policy commitments if the reality is going to match their rhetoric. David Cameron, for instance, missed out climate change and environment in his statement in May on priorities for a future Conservative government.
- The Liberal Democrats’ traditional leadership on the environment has waned over the past year; Nick Clegg has not yet set the pace on environmental issues expected from the Liberal Democrats.’
The report is a follow up to the report ‘How Green are our parties’ published in September 2007 which has been discussed has been discussed in previous posts in this blog. ‘Fit for the Future’ is a really useful and accessible report that summarises the parties positions with respect to environmental issues very concisely.
The findings of the report are not surprising all three parties have shown a chronic lack of leadership over the last year in the face of rising prices and the credit crunch. The sustainability crisis that we face over the next century caused by climate change, peak oil, population growth, deforestation, and pollution will sometimes be experienced directly as environmental crisis but will be often experienced through widely fluctuating prices of commodities, and increasing economic instability. Focusing on the instability will be only addressing the symptoms rather than addressing the causes. This is where we are now, the parties each sacrificing the decisive action to create long-term solutions, by jostling with each other for short term public approval. This is not leadership, it is big brother!
In the report a number caught my eye, the nine agencies involved; the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the Friends of the Earth, the Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the Woodland Trust and WWF, claimed between them to have over 5 million supporters. I don’t know the detail of how they came up with this figure, but it is a huge number. I believe the three main parties have approximately 560,000 members between them. This eclipsing number of people supporting action is also evidenced by the recent Mori Poll about public attitudes to climate change discussed in a previous post that said that 68% of the public wanted more government action about climate change.
How do we get help these people to become visible in their views? How do we support people to translate this pressing anxiety about the future into a call for action today?
One practical thing we can all do is write in support of ‘Fit for the Future’ to the party leaders in support of their statement:
The environment groups behind this report call on the three party leaders to make clear commitments to action in their party conference speeches:
- Yes to delivering 15 per cent of UK energy from appropriate renewable sources by 2020.
- Yes to a massive uplift in energy efficiency through major public investment and action to radically improve the energy performance of existing homes.
- Yes to putting in place policies that will value, protect and enhance the natural environment and secure the benefits it provides.
- No to new unabated coal power stations.
- No to expansion of airport capacity at Stansted or Heathrow.
You can email your support for this statement by following this link What can you do?
Filed under: Public attitudes, Taking Action, political parties | Tagged: climate change, environment, green standard, political parties, politics
