SUSTAINABILITY
a green low-carbon economy, innovation and more green jobs.
I also welcome announcements on feed-in tariffs, a smart grid and the roll-out of smart meters. And then there are the proposals for transport such as the introduction of high speed rail and the commitment to Crossrail. I’m chuffed that air passenger duty will be replaced with a per flight duty that will send a very clear signal on the harmful environmental impacts of aviation. And airport expansion was always a daft idea that didn’t stack up. Now it’s been ditched, the uncertainty that blighted so many people’s lives, and wrecked local communities, has ended.
There are proposals, too, to promote green space and wildlife corridors to halt the loss of habitats. A White Paper on these issues is already out. And there’s more. There will be a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion. So, there’s plenty to be happy about.
But the government has put the £164bn deficit at the top of its priorities and is promising cuts and a culture of austerity. It has forgotten the lessons of history and that Keynesian economics worked in the 1940s and 1950s. And it hasn’t considered the ecological deficit that is also urgent. By addressing this, the most shocking deficit of all, the government can create a green economy and green jobs, and the fairer society it has promised.
Deal with the country’s environmental problems, invest in a low carbon future, address consumer madness, tackle climate change, protect local services and the government can rebuild the economy too.
The new politics must abandon old-style thinking and create an economy honed on the principle of nature, nurture and
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“ THE COALITION’S ‘GREENEST GOVERNMENT EVER’ MANTRA WILL BE EASIER TO RECITE THAN DELIVER ”
replenishment. It cannot, and must not, be a choice between the environment and the economy. With a five year term guaranteed this new government can go further and be braver than previous ones.
A robust position on the environment will be vital. We need strong political leadership on the exploitation of resources, species extinction, population growth and climate change. And any commitment to a nuclear future must first resolve the issue of what to do with nuclear waste, how it will be disposed of, where, and at whose cost. Nuclear must not detract from a copper-bottomed commitment to renewables.
Climate change trumps everything and so far politicians have been found wanting. Although the global financial crisis is clearly important, it is dwarfed in its potential impacts by what climate change could bring about in the future. The blue-yellow coalition is uniquely placed. It can set the UK on to a trajectory of an adaptable, low-carbon society, or it can be remembered as the government that failed to act in time. No more procrastination.
But, hang on, the clearout of quangos has swept aside funding for the Sustainable Development Commission and dumped the forty year old Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. And other government-funded environmental bodies are under threat of cuts.
When quangos are cut, it suits politicians to forget they are arms-length organisations that guarantee a measure of independence immune from
government spin acting in the best interests of the public. There is a suspicion that government doesn’t want to hear the searching analysis and critique of government policy and environmental performance that bodies like the SDC and the RCEP provided.
Without an infrastructure of delivery agents, and without critical friends, how will the government deliver on its promise to be the greenest ever? The SDC was a good idea that worked. It delivered financial and environmental benefits and efficiencies in government. How Cameron’s Big Society will continue the important work of the SDC and other bodies remains to be seen.
Local councils won’t be able to do it. With more than £12bn of cuts to their central government funding over the course of this parliament, councils have problems of their own and will struggle to deliver basic services. Environmental services are likely to be most at risk at a time when they now have a much bigger role in flood defence.
And such is the scale of the cuts a public sector recession is very likely. The blighting of local government will surely undermine any attempt at greening our towns and cities and making them safe from extremes of weather. The culling of quangos and regional development agencies and the emasculation of councils will surely force a much bigger shake-up of the public sector - distracting us form urgent action on climate change, flood risk and building safer, sustainable communities.
The proposed abolition of the nine RDAs puts delivery of their green initiatives at risk. Set up in 1999 and charged with promoting sustainable economic development in the English regions the coalition government intends to replace them with local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) based around cities and other defined economic areas. Formed by local councils and business leaders, LEPs would take on a local economic development role. A White Paper later this summer will show the extent to which they will put the environment, sustainable communities and green jobs at the heart of their agenda.
But the demise of the RDAs is questionable, bonkers even. A recent independent report revealed that for every pound invested by the Agencies between 2003 and 2008 the benefits were around £6.40. Furthermore, the RDASs were shown to be the most effective and efficient of all government agencies making a significant contribution to sustainable communities and businesses. RDAs’ remit includes
environmental functions such as coordinating the development of low carbon industries, so their demise will derail the achievement of this and other green goals.
The coalition’s ‘greenest government ever’ mantra will be easier to recite than deliver. Those that the gods seek to destroy, they first make mad and it could come back to haunt David Cameron. As the pillars of the environmental community fall to departmental spending cuts ‘the greenest government ever’ will be held to ridicule.
Nick Reeves is executive director, The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management
Nov/Dec 10
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