A cross party caucus of parliament members is championing a new approach to environmental policy and action, but it can’t stop in Westminster.
Senior politicians and party leaders within the Conservatives and Reform UK are throwing their weight behind the false science of populism. According to Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, net zero is not only unaffordable but destined to fail.
Meanwhile, the Labour government continues to try and tread an impossible line somewhere between emissions reductions and fossil fuel extraction. They trumpet global warming concern while expanding aviation in the name of economic growth.
It’s a worrying sign of how Trumpian politics has spread across the Atlantic, given the state of play in the US right now. A country which has spent much of this year banning books from schools, defunding research departments and institutes, planning ways to disable crucial climate satellites, and spreading falsehoods about how rapidly the world is now moving away from oil and gas.
The rise of a toxic idiocracy is alarming for many reasons, but there’s still time and hope for Britain’s environment (among other things). We have four years before general election, which is an age and then some in politics. Councils won by Reform in this year’s local votes are already experiencing major problems, from finances to in-fighting, and recent results in the West Midlands, Wales and elsewhere suggest not everyone wants a far right swing. Then there’s the Green Party surging in polls, breaking records for the number of new members signing up in a 24-hour period, and cutting through at least a little of the noise.
The fightback against net zero naysayers and climate sceptics doesn’t end there, either. Nor does it start and stop with doctrines and allegiances. Launched yesterday morning, the Climate and Nature Crisis Caucus is a cross-party collective which aims to counter the dangerous rise in Westminster rhetoric which suggests we either have more time to solve the environmental challenge, or the environmental challenge never really existed in the first place.
Chaired by Olivia Blake MP, members include Minister for Climate Katie White OBE MP, former Climate Change Committee Chair Lord Deben, ex-Net Zero Tsar Chris Skidmore, and broadcaster Chris Packham. The collective features representatives from the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens, ranging from young MPs to peers in the House of Lords. And the message is simple.
‘Given all the benefits of acting on climate change – slowing down now would not just be a mistake it would be an act of national sabotage. Every year of delay drives up costs, deepens inequality, and leaves us more vulnerable to shocks home and abroad. Now is the time for action,’ said Blake.
‘I know this Parliament can show cross-party collaboration because we’ve done it before. In 2008 with the Climate Change Act and then in 2019 when Parliament declared a climate emergency,’ she continued. ‘This Caucus will restore a shared sense of purpose and rebuild consensus, resist division and remind the country that action of climate and nature is not optional. It is essential.’
Timing couldn’t be more significant. Recent week have seen Environment Journal report on alarming news about planetary boundaries and tipping points being crossed, and warnings that we should prepare for 2C of global warming by 2050 – far exceeding previous estimates. Meanwhile, yesterday we ran a story about Capgemini research suggesting that although more than 80% of UK organisations are looking to increase sustainability spending, responsibilities to people and planet are not the key drivers.
Instead, reputation and brand perception, profit and – crucially – regulation are the main catalysts. If this doesn’t emphasise how important it is for politicians to thwart attempts to derail an agenda based on scientific fact and consensus, we don’t know what does. Especially given some people still want to debate whether climate change is real at the same time as Hurricane Melissa breaks low pressure and power records, leaving meteorologists terrified about the ferocity and speed at which it developed and future storms may form. A catastrophe you’d say was unprecedented, if it wasn’t clearly predicated by decades spent not taking the kind of action needed to re-stabilise Earth.
‘We stand at a crossroads right now, climate breakdown is no longer a distant or abstract thing. Nature is in free fall, and I can tell you that without ambiguity,’ explains Packham. ‘Let’s make sure that Government policy works like a beaver dam – not blocking progress, but shaping the UK in a way that serves life. I know that, and with Olivia as chair, this new Climate and Nature Crisis Caucus could be the start of something genuinely transformative. A place where cross-party collaboration becomes the rule, not the exception. A place where science, compassion, and courage drive decisions.’
Image: Brooks DeCillia / Unsplash
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