“Despite some of the language environmental campaigners use, most of us aren’t driven by rebellious instincts but by the desire to protect the people and the places we love. It’s the wisdom of the progressive conservationist that leads many of us to advocate transformational change.”
THE NEW POLITICS matthew spencer director
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ritish environmental policy is entering a new phase. Much progress in the last ten years has been driven by European leadership on climate change and strong NGO campaigns against high carbon projects. These continue to be very important, but in an era where austerity and competition between nation states are likely to dominate, moral responsibility may not be the agent of change that we’d like it to be. Economic self-interest, greater resource security, and localism will be stronger drivers. This new political context requires environmental advocates to develop new skills, and new partnerships. We need to refresh our thinking about what it will take to create a sustainable low carbon society. We have a mountain to climb but the climate change act now commits the UK to marching to the summit. As the gradient increases, the voices calling for a change of direction will get louder and more persuasive. We only have to look at the way the environment has become a victim of the culture wars between liberal and conservative America to see how badly wrong it can go. This is one of the reasons why it’s so significant that we now have a centre right government with a strong interest in being green. These two things don’t come together very often in the Anglo-Saxon world. It provides a unique opportunity to strengthen the fragile UK political consensus on climate change. It’s a chance to harness the reforming zeal of the coalition to turn some long-held aspirations on green tax reform, smart regulation, and decentralised energy into reality. It also forces us to address the question of how to make the case for radical change to a conservative audience. Despite some of the language environmental campaigners use, most of us aren’t driven by rebellious instincts but by the desire to protect the people and the places we love. It’s the wisdom of the progressive conservationist that leads many of us to advocate transformational change. If we were more explicit about this it could help build a bridge to the majority of people who are afraid of change. At Green Alliance we are excited to be entering this new phase of British politics. We plan to help shape its boundaries with ideas for ambitious environmental action, to build new alliances for change, and to negotiate hard for our future security. We look forward to working with you on the next stage of this journey.
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