As the global economy enters recession, it is both understandable and forgivable for political leaders to invest most of their energies in combating what may yet turn out to be the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. None, though, must forget the environmental crisis of which all were seized before the economic crisis hit. To do so would not only pose a catastrophic threat to the effectiveness of the international fight against climate change, but would also ignore one of the single most important weapons with which to beat the economic global downturn.

The politics of the future – conceivably the next half century – will be dominated by the economy, the environment and energy security. These policy issues should be considered as a symbiotic triumvirate, with success in each policy enabling success in the adjoining policy areas. Strong economies require secure energy supplies and secure energy supplies tend to lean towards a greater supply of locally (ie nationally) produced energy than at any other time in our recent history, and so a virtuous circle is formed. But for success in these areas to occur, policymakers around the globe need to adopt a new environmentalism informed by hard science and practical policy, not an environmentalism which exists only in the pages of pamphlets and textbooks.

There can be no better illustration of the need for a new environmentalism than the public embrace of new nuclear energy generation from a number of prominent, and now former, anti-nuclear campaigners. Stephen Tindale, a former director of Greenpeace and adviser to former environment minister Michael Meacher, is one such convert. An equally well-respected figure is the writer and environmental campaigner Mark Lynas. There are others, all of whom should be credited for having the intellectual courage to so publicly announce their conversion; it is precisely such thinking upon which the new environmentalism should be based.

The reasons for this are compelling. Speaking to the Independent in February, Lynas focused upon the real environmental consequences of the extensive anti-nuclear campaign waged from the 1970s up until the present day across much of the developed world. ‘In retrospect, it will come to be seen as an enormous mistake for which the earth’s climate is now paying the price,’ he said.

The anti-nuclear movement became a cottage industry a long time ago, fuelled by an absolute belief in an anti-nuclear orthodoxy which paid little regard to the realities of science and caused a deep-seated distortion regarding the realities of nuclear energy to take hold of the public consciousness. Equally culpable are those politicians who chose to follow the easy, populist appeal of the anti-nuclear message instead of the science. The lesson of Lynas’s regret is that so often the ‘old’ environmentalism has rested upon casual assumptions – relating to politics, business and much else – rather than a practical application of policy solutions. The fact that the acceleration of global warming has been partly achieved by the success of the anti-nuclear movement in achieving a 30-year hiatus in the growth of civil nuclear power is an irony almost too painful to bear.

Practical environmentalism, effective environmentalism, the new environmentalism, must never allow assumptions about the nature or motivations of government or business to defeat mutual environmental objectives. By building a deep-seated understanding of the realities of climate change within business – and of the enormous economic potential in the solutions required to combat climate change – the new environmentalism will act as an innovator of effective environmental practices, not an inhibitor. This partnership between environmentalists, policymakers and business could not only help steer us through the recession, but ensure that the fight against global warming – and its success – becomes a reality. New environmentalism should encourage economic growth through green solutions and technologies, not a constraint of economic opportunity or social mobility through the advocacy of a shrinking national or international economy. By aligning environmental objectives with those of individuals, industry and nations the new environmentalism can help to stop climate change, rather than accelerate its speed. Green growth is good growth. We must now move towards a new environmentalism.