ESG | Opinion
Greta Thunberg is wrong
Mark Dunne explains why the most fashionable voice in the fight against climate change is missing the point on the UK’s carbon target.
There are few things in life more annoying than a know-it-all. A person who delights in telling everyone they meet what they should eat, which way they should vote on a par- ticular issue and why they should dispose of their rubbish in a certain way. It is even worse when that person is a teen- ager. People don’t like being preached at and especially not by someone who is not old enough to drive a car or drink alcohol and is unlikely to have ever paid tax. It is made worse by such a person using their platform to call for civil disobedience, to disrupt a child’s education, for example. So April was a particularly tough time as 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg visited the UK. She has started a movement where chil- dren walk out of school to demand govern- ments act against climate change. Thunberg is a darling of the Left and is
largely being used to spread their message. Indeed, politicians such as Ed Miliband and Caroline Lucas were falling over them- selves to be pictured with her during her visit to these shores. So I was surprised to read a headline that stated she had criticised former prime min- ister Theresa May’s plan for the UK to have a net zero carbon footprint by 2050. Was Thunberg agreeing with me that the gov- ernment was too ambitious in setting such a target? Was I about to join Miliband and Lucas in praising the social disobedience advocate? Could I be about to walk out of work in protest because she had issued a call? Well…no. After reading the article, I realised that Thunberg has missed the point that a net zero footprint would be difficult to achieve without a major disruption to our everyday lives.
Her criticism is that 2050 is too far away and that the deadline should be brought closer. Not even electric cars are on the zero-car- bon emission list. They are built with parts that have to be pulled out of the ground and then there is the manufacturing process. It is the same story with solar and wind solar parks. Setting that target was clearly a public rela- tions move, possibly motivated by the attention surrounding Thunberg’s cam- paigning in the UK. After all, May would be long gone by the time the government was held to account when it failed to meet its ambitious net zero target. The UK has a new prime minister, so this almost impossible target could be altered. We can only hope that campaigners will understand what is and is not possible to achieve when it comes to global warming. So the message to Greta, her fans and the government is simple: stop being idealists and start being realists when it comes to such an important issue as fighting climate change.
I apologise if I sound like a know-it-all who is telling you what to think.
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22 | portfolio institutional | June–July 2019 | issue 85
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