In decades to come, when people look back on the performance of our current government, I doubt that parties during lockdown will be the first thing that comes to mind. It is much more likely to be a lack of action on the climate crisis.
In its most recent (2021) progress report, the UK Committee on Climate Change observed that only 5 out of 34 key sectors had made notable progress on action to combat climate change in the last two years. The government’s Net Zero strategy is welcome, but proof will be in the delivery; and the hard evidence is not encouraging.
A sense of how committed the government really is can be obtained by looking at expenditure. For example, in August the WWF released a study showing that green policies make up 0.01% of GDP. Soon afterwards, the National Audit Office revealed that the overall expenditure on the Green Homes Grant would be around £0.3 billion. Compare that with, say, the circa £10 billion that the Financial Times today estimates has been wasted by the government on faulty PPE equipment. Or the >£100 billion for the environmentally damaging HS2 rail project.
Numerous such comparisons are possible; and while any single comparison is inconclusive and exact figures are debatable, the general picture is clear enough. As a nation, we have not – yet – shown a willingness to spend anywhere near enough money on perhaps the greatest issue of our lifetime.
Energy prices
Alongside parties in Downing Street, the major focus of the media is today on energy prices; and across the political spectrum there are calls to curb their rise. And yet the issue with energy prices is not that they are too high, but rather that they are too low. For decades, the overall trend of energy prices, like food, has been downwards in inflation-adjusted terms, to the point where few people bother to turn lights or computers off, or the heating off when they leave the house, or notice whether they have or have not.
Though it seems politically impossible to say so, most of us should pay more for our energy, including transport fuel, with support provided to those who genuinely cannot afford it.
The climate scientist David Mackay liked to say that we always need to ask ourselves: “where is the energy coming from?” Until we reach some golden age when technology has mastered global nuclear fusion, or diplomacy has mastered international cooperation to cover deserts with solar panels and share the output through international power grids – until then, if ever, Mackay’s question should be part of any energy-intensive decision taken nationally or individually. It is not that individuals can seriously be expected to know the answer in detail; but rather that asking the question shows an awareness that energy (and its impact) cannot be taken for granted.
When we get into the routine of asking the question, energy might arguably be priced at the right level.
Nadia Whittome’s private bill
Just as government does not treat the climate crisis seriously, nor does our education system. As a school governor, I find it almost incredible that teaching on sustainability is outside the “core” curriculum and confined to “extracurricular” activities. What is more “core” than the future of life on Earth?
So it’s good to see at least a private members’ bill – the Climate Education Bill – now at its second reading in parliament. The bill is pushing what should not need pushing, namely that sustainability teaching should be included in all subjects and years in the national curriculum. Let’s hope it passes and has at least some effect.
The vision we need
As a society we are in real trouble over climate breakdown. The problem is not a lack of vision as to what needs to be done. There are plenty of sensible policy documents and we have an excellent advisory body in the form of the Committee on Climate Change. The problem rather is a lack of delivery.
And this failure of delivery exposes a genuine lack of vision – which is about what it means to live a happy and fulfilled life. As long as happiness here and abroad is equated with size of house, a new car, new clothes and stuff generally, long-distance travel, external stimuli and never being still, we are in trouble. As long as a sense of security is associated with high earnings and a high animal protein diet, we are in trouble. Above all, our culture and our education system need to address our fundamental notions of happiness and security, for the future of life on Earth.