Our plans for tackling climate change are a mirage
Too little, too late
The Conservative government recently published plans for reducing green-house gas (GHG) emissions for new-build houses by 2050 but their track record in government has been to oppose such measures or to roll back on earlier commitments. Arguably most impact was made under Margaret Thatcher’s administration (198/88) in response to accusations that UK power stations were spreading acid rain over of Scandinavian countries. This coincided with her determination to break the perceived strangle-hold miners had over the economy. Her policies saw drastic reductions in the use of coal for power generation and the introduction of natural gas (displacing coal) for home heating. Many policies were also enacted under the coalition government (2010-2015) to reduce carbon emissions. As soon as the coalition ended all these policies were revoked.
Hollow victory
The UK has basked in the image of near abolition of plastic bags and a low-carbon economy, even celebrating “Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels” in May 2020, whilst at the same time renewable energy output collapsed and we imported 4Gw of ‘dirty’ energy. An ambitious programme in 2020 to renew ‘green’ investment in the existing housing stock (a major contributor to GHG emissions in the UK) is being abandoned through poor and incomplete implementation. The truth is that there is little confidence in achieving the UK ‘zero carbon’ target by 2050, since essential measures are not yet in place. Even were this achieved, the UK has ‘exported’ so much of its carbon-intensive industrial activity that without introducing penalties on the import of carbon-intensive products the victory, such as it is, would be a hollow one.
Light nder a bushel
As in many previous domains, the UK is leading the world in climate research but these initiatives are ignored by government and fail to feature in active support let alone the adoption of suitable policy initiatives. Although I am aware of the work of the world-leading Hadley Centre for climate modelling, I have not seen any evidence that the UK government has commissioned much needed input to its COP26 proposals.
Strong measures are needed in the UK as in other countries. With the UK hosting COP26 in Glasgow this year, we need to see leadership.
The sirens for change are clear:
The UK’s housing stock needs financial support from government to lower its carbon footprint, yet all we have on offer is a vague commitment of lower emissions from new-builds by 2050.
Mark Carney, the past Governor of the Bank of England recognises the role of finance in climate change and argues for carbon pricing.
Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft argues for technological innovation to tackle the intractable problem of GHG emissions from steel, cement, transport systems, fertiliser production.
Carbon capture and storage is being implemented in Norway in order to sequester emission from cement manufacture.
The UK government’s first Chief Scientist, Prof Sir Dave King is currently running a research group in Cambridge to investigate ‘geo-engineering’ as a last ditch battle to reverse climate change.
Let's get real!
All of these initiatives and more are needed if COP26 is to chart a path towards achievable climate goals. The laurels that the UK government (and others) rest on are false accolades; the real commitment is still lacking. Climate change is a clear and present danger. As Bill Gates has said, “Solving Covid is very, very easy compared with climate change”.
Here is the recent chronicle of our missed opportunities as reflected by the press:
Good intentions (Jan 2021)
Losing the plot (Feb 2021)
The 2020 budget (Jul 2020)
Fake-news (May 2020)
Not fade away (Jan 2020)
2019 manifesto pledges
Light at the end of the tunnel (Oct 2019)?
What happened when the coalition ended (Jul 2015)?
Thatcher’s legacy (2013)
