Climate change – a dream not a nightmare?

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A fringe event has discussed how the Labour movement should approach the issue of climate change.

Roger Little, chair of the Policy Network opened the debate.

There was a broad consensus reached among the speakers and the audience that a new positive approach towards climate change could be the way for the Labour movement to take ownership of the green agenda away from the Tories.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband put forward his view on the challenges of the issue; that both globally and nationally, the circle of those genuinely committed to stopping climate change is small, and the forces against are large and powerful.

He agreed that the threat of climate change is not enough to persuade everyone - to many it feels distant and intangible, and that in order to persuade the many, a positive agenda was needed.

He highlighted this by quoting a Labour member who had said to him at a meeting in Liverpool: "If Martin Luther King had had a nightmare, no-one would have followed him, but he had a dream."

He said the way to win on climate change may be to present the issue as one of creating employment and stimulating the economy, rather than relying on the purely environmental case, based on threat.

Clive Soley from Future Heathrow was next to speak.

He agreed with Miliband on the need to present people with a dream rather than a nightmare.

Soley 's view that expanding Heathrow by creating a third runway would help tackle the issue of climate change- as it would relieve UK-based travellers of the need to transit via Europe in order to reach their long haul destinations- was disputed by certain members of the audience.

He was followed by Stephen Hale, the director of Green Alliance, who said it was not the green movement that was going to tackle climate change, and highlighted the need to bring in non-environmental voices to reframe the issue.

He also advocated an end to the use of the phrase "climate change", and agreed with the previous speakers on the need to advertise the benefits of the issue, to industry and the economy for example, rather than simply the costs.

Hugh Compston, a reader in politics at Cardiff University, joined the debate next, pointing out that an increase in natural disasters brought about by climate change will, in the eyes of the public and the media, present government with increased windows of opportunity in which to move ahead.

He drew on the example of the financial crisis, in which the government were able to pass more radical policies than they would have done in times of stability.

Nicky Gavron, Labour member of the London Assembly, pointed out that we are five years away from the trigger point of "runaway" climate change, and that the next government will oversee these five years.

She stated that there was a cross-party consensus on the urgency of the issue, but not on how far we need to go, or how fast.

Gavron claimed the only way to get a consensus is with Labour leading; the Tories claim to be committed to the issue of climate change but do not 'walk the walk'.

She said in London, mayor Boris Johnson states repeatedly that he has adopted Ken Livingstone's target of a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, but goes on to kill all mechanisms introduced by the previous administration to achieve this, such as halving the congestion charge and cutting funding to public transport.

She agreed with the previous speakers and the audience that Obama had "got it", and that the financial and environmental crises should be tackled together, by reframing the issue as climate prosperity.

Fringe details

The politics of climate change: Is cross-party conensus good for Labour? - Policy Network

Sunday September 27, 17:30pm

Chair: Roger Liddle, The Policy Network
Ed Miliband MP, secretary of state for energy and climate change
Stephen Hale, Green Alliance