Member News
By Edward Webber - 28th October 2009
Lord Stern, the acclaimed international climate economist, was the star attraction at yesterday's meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on climate change.
Stern argues that while we are getting better at the international diplomacy, economics and science of climate change, we have some way to go in communicating the positive long-term vision of tackling climate change to the public.
We are now six weeks away from the crucial Copenhagen climate summit, and NGOs and politicians are ramping up their PR machines to spell out the implications of a failure to secure a global deal: average global temperature rises not seen for 30 million years; hundreds of millions of eco-refugees; southern Europe turned into the Sahara; food and water shortages on a biblical scale.
Of course they are right. But we hear far less about the opportunities that climate change offers to change things for the better.
Take development. A major component of any global deal will have to be a commitment by the developed world to fund sustainable development in developing countries and a substantial transfer of clean technology.
The goal is for developing countries to experience substantial economic growth and keep their ecological footprints firmly under control.
In practice, this will mean rapidly expanding successful sustainable development projects, from micro-financing for solar-powered cookers and roofwater catchments, to large-scale reforestation projects across vast swathes of South East Asia, Central Africa and South America.
On energy security, it's painfully obvious that the low-carbon energy route is the answer.
There can be no more sound strategy for secure supplies of energy than one built around renewables, nuclear and energy efficiency.
Not only will these climate-change-inspired policies be a major step towards national energy self-sufficiency in both the West and in developing countries, but by reducing our dependence on oil and gas imports, it could be a major step towards a more peaceful and stable international system.
Tackling climate change means that clean technologies will have to be the next 'dot com'.
Provided that governments get their interventions right, this should be one of the most exciting growth areas in the global economy, attracting billions in private investment, creating millions of jobs and generating enormous wealth at a time when the world desperately needs it.
If you don't believe me, just look at China. Clean technology and renewable energy are now fundamental pillars of their five-year economic plans.
Their recent shift in favour of making "notable reductions" in their own emissions is a sign that China sees that getting a deal out of Copenhagen is in both its environmental and economic interests.
Finally, the shift to a low-carbon economy will bring about substantial benefits to our quality of life.
The new emerging clean technologies coming through - from electric and hybrid cars to micro-renewables that lower your energy bills and earn you cash back - are quieter, cleaner and cheaper than anything before.
The health benefits are enormous. Better air quality in the UK alone will dramatically reduce the 24,000 premature deaths a year due to smog and air particulates. Globally, we are talking about a figure near five million lives a year.
Climate change is an unprecedented threat to our planet.
But while we are getting pretty good at getting across a doom-laden vision of the future, we are not good at talking about the positive outcomes that will come from mitigating and adapting to climate change.
As Ed Miliband told the group, "Martin Luther King said'I have a dream', not'I have a nightmare'".
The truth is that a low-carbon society will be a healthier, cheaper, quieter, fairer and more prosperous one to live in. We need to start getting this message across.
Edward Webber is a parliamentary researcher for Jenny Willott MP.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd