• Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
    • Wind
    • Marine
    • Solar
    • Biomass
    • Nuclear
    • CCS
    • Infrastructure
  • Policy
    • Politics
    • Legislation
    • Taxation
  • Management
    • Marketing
    • Risk
    • Skills
    • Incentives
    • Carbon Accounting
  • Technology
    • Waste
    • Recycling
    • R&D
    • Efficiency
    • IT
  • Investment
    • Carbon Trading
    • Offsets
    • Venture Capital
  • Net Zero Now
  • Events & Awards
  • SDG Hub
  • Industry Voice
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
    • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • Free Trial
  • Subscribe
  • Events & Awards
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      NZF Pathway - Finance

      This exclusive half day online event will investigate how all businesses can support and accelerate the transition to low and net zero carbon buildings, while maximising the financial and productivity opportunities that will result.

      • Date: 16 Mar 2021
      • Online Event
      event logo
      Net Zero Festival 2021

      Net Zero Festival is the world's first business festival dedicated to exploring, advancing, and celebrating the global transition to a net zero emission economy. Join us at BusinessGreen's Net Zero Festival – for leaders who won't wait until 2050 to build a better business, and a better world.

      • Date: 29 Sep 2021
      • Worldwide
      View all events
  • SDG Hub
Business Green
Business Green
  • Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • Management
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Net Zero Now
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
  • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
  • Hot topics
  • Carbon offset markets
  • Green aviation
  • Deforestation
  • Net Zero Finance
Blog post ribbon image
  • Politics

Election 2017: On the environment, and much else, it is time for a new style of politics

Election 2017: On the environment, and much else, it is time for a new style of politics
  • James Murray
  • James Murray
  • @James_BG
  • 10 June 2017
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Theresa May's campaign singularly failed to tackle the big issues of the age - it is time the political class fronted up

Where to begin? Perhaps with the observation Belgium once went 535 days without a government. It's one way to avoid a hard Brexit I suppose. If no one turns up for a negotiation can anyone hear it collapse?

At the time of writing, a period of intense political instability looks inevitable (that's an evergreen sentence that works for pretty much any point over the past two years, and probably the next decade or so). The words "strong and stable" can only be uttered with an eye-roll - or a sob. The Tories can just about form a government with the backing of the DUP, but it is nowhere near a workable majority and every vote will be on a knife edge. The future of the UK's foxes looks considerably brighter than that of the Prime Minister.

Related articles

  • Shambles squared
  • Pricing the priceless
  • Brighter times ahead
  • Presidential possibilities

If there is one upside from the Conservative's implosion, let it be that the evasive style of campaigning pioneered by Cameron and adopted wholesale by May must be consigned to the dustbin of history. Running as an enigma wrapped in a deliberately vague manifesto, inside a tautological sound bite is to treat the electorate with contempt - they noticed, and they were not impressed.

For Labour the question is whether Jeremy Corbyn has enthused and mobilised everyone he is ever going to appeal to or whether the party now has all the momentum (pun intended) in British politics. Brace yourself for a summer of Conservative leadership speculation and a second election in the not too distant future.

This shock result contains a number of immutable political lessons, several of which touch upon the green economy and the environmental agenda.

As the Guardian's Polly Toynbee noted yesterday, it always comes down the economy, stupid. To win an election when living standards are being squeezed is historically tough, a fact May will regret ignoring. The Conservatives clung far too closely to a failed austerity programme and did not make nearly enough of their plans to deliver a more activist industrial strategy, which could have been built on investment in low carbon infrastructure, clean tech innovation, and green jobs.

Secondly, the environment is, in the words of former Green Alliance boss Matthew Spencer, a hygiene issue. The public expects an ambitious green strategy as standard. Poll after poll shows they like action on climate change, love renewables, and adore animals. Ambitious green policies may not win you many votes outside the 'green ghetto', but their absence, or more accurately the failure to promote them, will lose you votes as supporters of your opponents become more motivated.

If, in a tight poll, you threaten to eviscerate foxes, dilute ivory trade regulations, boost unpopular fracking projects while having little to say on popular renewables, and refuse to strongly condemn a US president committed to planetary-level recklessness then you will alienate a sizeable chunk of the population, while only appealing to a small and ageing constituency who were always going to vote for you. We'll never know if a more progressive line on environmental issues and animal rights would have got May over the line, but there is strong anecdotal evidence that fox hunting in particular cut through both online and on the doorstep.

Finally, you need to give people something to vote for, a vision that goes beyond the claim to be 'the least worst option'; you can't treat voters with barely concealed irritation. The Conservative manifesto had some positive and interesting things to say on the green economy, innovation, and the role of the state, and the Party had some credible and intelligent candidates at its disposal. They should have been deployed to talk about an attractive plan for investing in R&D and building a competitive, modern economy. There should have been clarity on the type of Brexit the government wants to pursue, complete with reassurances that the freedoms and protections the public overwhelmingly supports would be retained. Instead we got robotic and meaningless soundbites and a disgraceful refusal by the Prime Minister to debate the big issues buffeting the UK. 

What are the implications of a hung parliament for the green economy? They are likely to be considerable and at this stage it is impossible to tell whether they will be net positive or negative.

On the plus side, there is still an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons for climate action and a more conciliatory, softer approach to Brexit. There is also the hope that when the Conservative Party leadership looks at the post-mortem of this awful campaign it will recognise there is political capital to be had in engaging more fully with the environmental issues a vast majority of the public care about. If centrists Tories can hold their nerve it is hard to see how May can push through either a self-harming Brexit or unpopular environmentally damaging policies.

However, this optimism has to be balanced by the likelihood of further delays to a raft of crucial green policy decisions and on-going confusion about how the Brexit process will play out.

The government was already struggling with insufficient bandwidth even before May created this self-inflicted political dumpster fire. The climate does not care for seat counts and international investors only care in so much as they may simply encourage them to place their capital elsewhere. As such long-awaited policy moves such as the publication of the Clean Growth Plan, clarification on funding for clean energy beyond 2020, the finalisation of the air quality plan, visibility on the future of EU environmental regulations, and the resolution of critical issues such as agricultural subsidies and how to replace Euratom are required with the upmost urgency. Instead, it now looks likely that efforts to address these vital issues will be deferred yet again, undermining the UK's competitiveness and increasing the risk of an investment hiatus in the process

Equally, attempts to resolve the inherent tensions in the Conservative manifesto will also be delayed. The question of whether to support a new wave of onshore wind farms was left tantalisingly open, while the manifesto did not say nearly enough on topics such as solar, tidal lagoons, energy efficiency, and the circular economy. These issues were likely to be addressed in the Clean Growth Plan and through the promised energy cost review following an inevitable bout of political in-fighting between the green and climate sceptic wing of the Conservative Party. That crucial battle is now likely to be delayed further thanks to the current confusion.

Finally, there is a very real risk the DUP's extreme stance on climate change and Brexit could tip the battle in favour of a series of politically expedient but economically and environmentally damaging decisions. Sensible Conservatives will have to be on their mettle to avoid such an outcome. They should be mobilising already to make it clear to the Prime Minister or whoever succeeds her that when it comes to partnering with a ideologically motivated party that could create major problems for the Northern Ireland peace process then no deal can actually be better than a bad deal.

This was an election called for partisan and arrogant political reasons. It would heap tragedy on top of farce if the new government fails to recognise the message from the electorate is a stinging rebuke to those who put party ahead of the long term interests of the country.

The UK faces an historic, epoch shaping challenge to harness rapidly changing technologies and build a modern, sustainable, low carbon economy at the same time as finding a new position in the world in partnership with our allies and neighbours. That means prioritising the structural, long term challenges the UK faces and ending the interminable deferall of difficult decisions on climate action and low carbon infrastructure.

Our political class urgently needs to prove in the coming days and weeks that it is up to the task. That would be as good a place as any to begin.

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Politics
  • Policy
  • General election 2017
  • Theresa May
  • Conservative Party
  • Low Carbon Economy

More on Politics

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing calls to slash VAT on green products in when he delivers the Budget on 3 March
    • Taxation
'Opportunity to reset': How MPs are urging the Treasury to use tax policy to drive green recovery
    • Taxation
    • 17 February 2021
Tees Valley has the largest integrated chemical complex in the UK | Credit: Tees Valley Mayor
    • Net Zero Now
'Educate, inspire, and involve': Could citizens' climate juries help fix the Green Homes Grant scheme - and a lot more besides?
    • Net Zero Now
    • 16 February 2021
    • Policy
HM Treasury's Net Zero Review: The bedrock of a just transition?
    • Policy
    • 16 February 2021
    • Management
Global Briefing: Australia and EU flex muscles over carbon border tariff proposals
    • Management
    • 12 February 2021
The scheme offered householders vouchers towards the costs of green home upgrades
    • Buildings
Government blames Covid-19 for Green Homes Grant woes
    • Buildings
    • 12 February 2021
The landfill tax has slashed landfill waste in the UK
    • Taxation
Taxing questions: How the government's 'limited understanding' of environmental taxes is hampering green goals
    • Taxation
    • 12 February 2021
    • Carbon Trading
Government confirms carbon trading plans, ups auction reserve price
    • Carbon Trading
    • 12 February 2021
    • Policy
Cumbria coal mine could usher in a net-zero-compliant fossil fuel industry - or prove it was always a fantasy
    • Policy
    • 12 February 2021

More news

Transition Pathway Initiative: Just 14 per cent of heavy industry is aligned with global climate goals
  • Investment
Transition Pathway Initiative: Just 14 per cent of heavy industry is aligned with global climate goals

But researchers predict that a 'tipping point' of technically viable, economically attractive solutions to decarbonise industrial and materials sectors is approaching

  • 17 February 2021
'Opportunity to reset': How MPs are urging the Treasury to use tax policy to drive green recovery
  • Taxation
'Opportunity to reset': How MPs are urging the Treasury to use tax policy to drive green recovery

Environmental Audit Committee Chair Philip Dunne talks to BusinessGreen about the need for 'a tax system fit for net zero Britain' and the right time to judge whether the government has delivered on its green recovery promises

  • 17 February 2021
Mindsets are shifting - with huge implications for business and sustainability
  • Management
Mindsets are shifting - with huge implications for business and sustainability

Sustainability as the foundation of value creation and route to survival leads to different thinking in business, explains Forum for the Future's Caroline Ashley

  • 17 February 2021
No smiley face for climate campaigners after wind turbine emoji bid is refused
  • Marketing
No smiley face for climate campaigners after wind turbine emoji bid is refused

Climate campaigners have expressed disappointment after the organisation responsible for emojis refused a request to add a wind turbine icon to its lexicon of symbols

  • 17 February 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

'Bonkers savings': NatWest and Octopus Energy debut discounted EV charging package
'Bonkers savings': NatWest and Octopus Energy debut discounted EV charging package
Renewables overtake fossil fuels in 2020 as Britain's power grid enjoys 'greenest year' yet
Renewables overtake fossil fuels in 2020 as Britain's power grid enjoys 'greenest year' yet
'A shambles': Is the Green Homes Grant scheme budget being cut?
'A shambles': Is the Green Homes Grant scheme budget being cut?
'Phenomenal result': Lloyds Bank and Woodland Trust hit one million tree-planting target
'Phenomenal result': Lloyds Bank and Woodland Trust hit one million tree-planting target
The inside story of the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance
The inside story of the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance
  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Incisive Footer Logo

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading