Few issues exercise Labour supporters more than climate change and the need to safeguard the earth’s dwindling resources. That’s because socialists have historically been concerned with the equitable distribution of power and income, with sustainable stewardship of the land, sea and air, and with a fair opportunities for future generations. Within our political tradition there has been a demand for access to the countryside and mountains for all, support for locally grown and distributed food, and an internationalist concern for fair trade and aid.
Most of all, socialism is about collectivist approaches to common problems. When it comes to rising sea levels, melting ice caps, dramatic climate change and the energy crisis, there are no solutions other than collective ones. No individual, no matter how rich or altruistic, can tackle climate change. No single state can do it. Only governments and countries working together can hope to stem the tide.
I am proud of Labour’s work on climate change in recent years. Our 2008 climate change act made Britain the first country in the world to enshrine its carbon targets into law. Ed Miliband was a far-sighted and committed energy secretary in the last Labour government. Labour’s manifesto at the last election offered a comprehensive and radical approach on the shift from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy. We proposed 40 per cent low-carbon electricity by 2020 and 400,000 new green jobs by 2015; a ‘pay as you save’ home energy insulation scheme; more protection for our green belt, national parks and forests, and an industrial strategy to create green jobs and firms to secure our nation’s economic future, including a Green Investment Bank.
Now it’s time to write the next chapter. I am convinced that the environment will be a key issue at the next election. The Conservative-led government’s approach – to leave it to the market – will be exposed as wholly inadequate, as my piece this week on LabourList makes plain. Our task is to create a green policy which is radical, credible and most of all sell-able on the doorsteps.
I sincerely hope local CLPs, councillors, trade union branches, affiliated societies, co-ops, green groups, and Labour supporters will discuss and debate the big questions:
• What will a low-carbon Britain look like?
• How can we boost green firms and create green jobs?
• How can communities come together to save energy and boost renewables?
• How can we tackle fuel poverty?
• How should a Labour Britain work with other countries on climate change?
It’s not just about what governments can do. We should look at campaigning opportunities which engage local communities. We need a revived ‘green communitarianism’ which involves citizens and communities in local action. As Labour becomes once again the party of local government, we need to learn from Labour councils’ initiatives up and down the country.
The policy review is a great opportunity to engage local supporters, especially the new members who have swelled our ranks. Let’s start to write the next chapter together.
Luciana Berger is Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree and shadow minister for climate change
interesting to know what % of “manufacturing currently up 7% ” might be more “green” . (Carpet Recycling Entrepreneurs UK Conference :July 5th.Birmingham)
As a socialist who is aware of the history of socialism, I challenge the notion that socialism has any historical connection with safeguarding the dwindling resuorces of the planet. The history of socialism is peppered with examples often misgiuded examples of the exploitation of the nature, sometimes with devastating consequences and for little reward. My primary concern, as a socialist, is to make sure the distribution of resources is equitable so that people get fed, and have the ability to achieve their potential in life. It is exploitation of human beings not nature which animated marx and most of his followers througout history. Not that i want to see the environment destroyed, I am actually quite the envorinmentalist. There are clear problems with clear solutions which benefit not just the environment but human beings too. Eradicating ones ‘Carbon footprint’ is not one of them. Carbon, or C02 is not a pollutant. It may have been painted as such by a variety of pressure groups but to talk of it as this is nothing but a lazy assumption. The Global warming/climate change/ C02 link may not be a dabte which can be resolved here, but I must point out that no empirical evidence has been produced to show a slightly warmed planet will be bad for nature/ the human race at all. Only a lot of recieved misunderstanding, and conjecture tells us this is so. As such I find the amount of effort directed at this ‘problem’ by ‘socialists’ offensive when there are so many clearly demonstrable problems still out there which the socialist movement arose to tackle over a century ago.
The Labour Government’s record on the environment is an embarrassment. Green house gas emissions rose and in thirteen years we were still left with promises rather than action like those you’ve mentioned. I hope the Labour party does wake up to the importance of combating climate change, being less wasteful with our finite resources and providing equal access to a healthy environment. In the mean time I’ll be voting for and supporting the Green Party.