It’s easy to get all doom and gloom about the climate. The good news is that there are now very few people who ignore the science. The vast majority of us know there’s a problem and want to see action.
But while the deniers have moved to the margins we’re now faced with another tribe – the delayers. Rishi Sunak’s recent U-turn on the climate is a masterclass in different ways of dodging doing something – anything.
The first tactic is to say “someone else should do something first”.
This excuse was all over the PM’s speech. It paints a picture of the UK being weakened by taking action faster than other nations, who will take advantage of us. And yet there are loads of benefits from policies that leave us stronger in the face of climate change, that make us more resilient and that provide local employment. The UK sits on the renewables equivalent of the Middle East oil fields. We could have been, we could still be, a world leader in green technology, but thirteen years of governments twiddling their thumbs is throwing away our competitive advantage, and our future prosperity.
Then there’s blaming the situation on everyone other than us. We’ve been burning fossil fuels longer than most. Our nation was the first to industrialise, all powered by coal. We should be the leader in moving beyond fossil fuels. The Conservatives have often talked us up as a world leader – but when there’s a real opportunity to bring the world with us they’ve bottled it.
Then there’s putting all the responsibility on you and me rather than the big corporations. The world’s 100 largest companies are responsible for 75% of greenhouse gases. Yes we need to act as individuals but governments can make things happen faster and take the burden off regular people by making the multinationals take action.
Rishi was also very keen on solutions that minimise disruption for your average citizen. Great, but that then achieves nothing.
There was a lot of ‘technological optimism’; focusing on current and future technologies to solve climate change. Take the government’s ‘Jet Zero’ policy, which relies entirely on unproven or non-existent technologies and ‘sustainable’ future fuels rather than better alternatives to flying. He may as well sell us flying saucers. It’s just another way of kicking the can down the road and dodging the responsibilities of leadership.
The PM’s speech was full of big claims and little action, telling everyone that we are world leaders, that we are working towards an ambitious target. The UK’s target may appear ambitious, but he’s ducking taking responsible and meaningful action now. There has been international condemnation of the UK’s U-turn on climate policy because people rightly fear that foot-draggers will just say “we’re following the UK on this”.
Then there’s the old “but fossil fuels are becoming more efficient” line. It’s like listening to a drug addict talk about how their habit is just fine. Oil is as filthy as it ever was, as is coal. It’s just another way of Rishi sticking his head in the sand.
One thing that stands out is that the Conservatives are all for threatening people with big sticks – if they’re immigrants or protestors. They’ll lock people up just for holding up a sign outside a court reminding jurors of their legal rights. But when it comes to the climate it’s all carrot and no stick. prime minister Sunak invented imaginary ‘sticks’ on the spot; a meat tax, enforced car pooling or seven recycling bins. If he gets seven recycling bins it’ll only be because he’s got seven houses. He acts as though if there are no disincentives for planet-destroying behaviour somehow people will just choose to do the right thing. He takes an extreme opposite approach with law and order. It almost makes you believe he really doesn’t care about the future of the planet.
But then Rishi is all about talking up the downsides.
He wants everyone (oil companies included) to feel comfortable with change: “We can adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero.” That’s like lying on the sofa instead of fixing the hole in the roof, or perhaps reclining in a comfy seat on a private jet, in Rishi’s case.
‘Appeal to well-being’ is stating that abandoning fossil fuels is abandoning the poor. It states that growth has pulled billions of people out of poverty. But this is absolutely no longer true for late stage capitalism, which increasingly only benefits the wealthiest. Wealth inequality is on the rise, not only between nations, but within nations. No one in the UK is more out of touch with reality than our PM. He doesn’t need to worry about potholes or train strikes, when all he needs to decide is whether to travel by helicopter or private jet. He has no idea what the impact of the climate will be like on those of us who can’t afford £500 loafers. If the climate breaks down it’ll be the least well off who’ll pay the most.
So when he questions why hard-working families should pay for the transition to a low-carbon economy, what he’s really doing is dodging the question of why the government is doing nothing to help them. Take this as a for instance: in the last decade Conservative governments have slashed funding for home insulation by 90%. It’s left us with needlessly higher energy bills, higher carbon emissions and fewer jobs in the green economy. It’s not Rishi’s family that’ll be cold this winter.
The only argument that Mr Sunak didn’t resort to is to say “It’s too late. We’re all doomed so we might as well party”. Of course the government needs to give the impression that matters are under control, when the reality is that there is precious little evidence to suggest it is either able or willing to take the bold action needed.
He may be arguing for delay but he’s still in denial. The result will be the same. Do nothing. Perhaps he hopes he can buy his way out of the consequences.
Our challenge as individuals is not to let a waste of space like Rishi Sunak get in our way. He may be content to do nothing but we don’t have to be. We can seize back our future. It is through action that optimism is born.
Dominic Manning, 28 September 2023
Image Credits: William F. Lamb, Giulio Mattioli, Sebastian Levi, J. Timmons Roberts, Stuart Capstick, Felix Creutzig, Jan C. Minx, Finn Müller-Hansen, Trevor Culhane, Julia K. Steinberger (2020). “Discourses of climate delay”. Global Sustainability 3 (e17): 2. DOI:10.1017/sus.2020.13. “Fig. 1. A typology of climate delay discourses.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_typology_of_climate_delay_discourses.png.
