Don’t cut the green crap: Why reversing climate policies is a mistake

Labour and the Tories should not be turning their backs on the green transition – one of the UK’s big success stories – at a time when taking action is more important than ever, Jessica Frank-Keyes argues

It was back in 2013 when it emerged that then-Prime Minister, now Lord David Cameron had reportedly asked aides to “get rid of that green crap”.

Over a decade later, with Cameron back at the heart of government, it appears to not only be his foreign policy expertise that successor (plus four) Rishi Sunak is borrowing from.

Last September, in one of his biggest U-turns in No10, Sunak hit the brakes on the transition away from new petrol and diesel cars and gas boilers. But the Prime Minister isn’t alone in seeming to take inspiration from Cameron’s apparent attitude towards climate change.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer embarked on a green spending flip reversal of his own in February, when he cut the party’s pledge to spend £28bn a year on green investment by the end of the next parliament in half, promising just £15bn annually instead.

While north of the border, the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and Greens coalition at Holyrood collapsed in the wake of the Scottish government confirming it would scrap plans to reduce carbon emissions in Scotland by 75 per cent by 2030.

Despite coming after independent advisors at the Climate Change Committee (CCC) warning the goal was “no longer credible”, the repercussions saw the Greens’ support of the SNP implode, and Humza Yousaf’s premiership subsequently withered on the vine.

“We are in a worse position than we were a year ago in terms of our political leadership on the environment, with both major parties playing part in that,” Holly Brazier Tope, head of politics at independent think tank the Green Alliance, said. 

However, Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), had a different take.

“In terms of policy, I think the government is actually getting on with a lot of the nuts and bolts of what it needs to do on net zero,” he said. “One example I would highlight is the work they’ve done on the grid – which is the single biggest barrier to building more renewable energy projects and decarbonizing our electricity system.” 

But he accepted that “where there has been a bit of a rollback… is on rhetoric” and that there’s “less emphasis on green issues”. 

Naturally, with the economy only just emerging from a technical recession, it’s understandable that a government facing dire poll ratings might look at attempting to ease the financial burden on people as an easy win.

But this is a shortsighted course of action. 

Labour and the Tories should instead be adopting the same political approach to the green transition that some politicians are currently using when it comes to arguing for increased defence spending. 

Tanks and guns will rarely win in a popularity contest with nurses and hospital beds, and yet, boosting defence spending is increasingly – and rightly – being discussed as a rational response to a more dangerous world.

Reflecting on the merits of this approach – appropriate stockpiling, preparedness, training, while continuing to work towards peace – can similarly be applied to the climate crisis.

More fundamentally, there is a flaw at the core of Sunak’s argument that, as the UK is already doing well at going green, we can afford to slow down and take our foot off the gas.

Allowing people to believe there’s no real urgency – that we have time to bury our heads in the sand – is wrong. It won’t build the motivation, or collective action, we need to “take people with us”, as Sunak and his party so often put it. Instead we need honesty, communication and bravery.

Once you slow down, the scale of the task at hand only becomes more frightening and harder to complete. 

More importantly, the UK’s success in the green transition is something that should be celebrated and embraced, rather than shied away from. 

“Could you name any other industry, or UK added value that we were doing really well in, starting to really lead the world, where we said, ‘oh, therefore, that means we don’t have to do this anymore because we’re already ahead’?”, said Paul McNamee, director of the Labour Climate and Environment Forum. “It’s like a hare deciding to take a nap whilst the tortoise is coming up behind you.” 

“Could you name any other industry, or UK added value that we were doing really well in, starting to really lead the world, where we said, ‘oh, therefore, that means we don’t have to do this anymore because we’re already ahead’?”

Paul McNamee, director of the Labour Climate and Environment Forum.

Brazier Tope agreed. “If we can paint the UK as a success story to now, which it absolutely has been, then we need that momentum to keep going because we are still quite a long way off some of our targets in the next few years,” she stressed.

Instead of cutting the green crap then, for all our sakes, let’s hope the election campaign – and the next government – embrace the UK’s record on climate change as an actual world-beating success story.