Blog

Greenhouse Weekly Round-Up

Sally Hill | 20.08.10

One hundred days into the coalition leadership, Richard Black has analysed the UK government's claim to be the greenest-ever government and asks: if the government says it's green, how has it been measured?

How does this 'greenest-ever' claim weight indicators of success or failure such as a reduction in carbon emissions, or a rise in the extinction rate of farmland birds? With the decision not to back a third runway at Heathrow, but also to close the Sustainable Development Commission.

There was also an interesting discussion on the Guardian blog about the Government's willingness to demote the importance of the environment in favour of spending cuts and political expediency. Leo Hickman argued that the current cuts are in a long line of policies that are seeing short-termism failing the environment.

Here are the links we loved this week:

Read more

Environment Weekly Greenhouse Updates | Share +
climate change, biodiversity, government, coalition, meat, global warming, uk, greenest-ever, extinction, population

The Budget: The green movement’s big opportunity?

Greta Jonyniate | 23.03.12

So after two days, the outrage is beginning to abate, the pundits have run out of steam, and George Osborne’s budget is beginning to sink in as hard, cold fiscal fact. Just when we thought we knew what was coming (50p tax rate to be cut, mansion tax introduced), Osborne pulled out the cuts to pensioner’s tax subsidies. #Grannytax is still trending, and cartoonists have had an excuse to draw wolves and bonnets, with “Grandma, what big…” puns galore. But what about the environment?

When it comes to the Budget, at least the green movement can be said to be all in it together. John Sauven, exectuive director of Greenpeace, said Budget 2012 was “a bad day for the environment.” Paul Barwell, chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, thought the budget’s confirmation that solar wouldn’t receive a key energy efficiency tax break was “solar…singled out for rough treatment.” But this was Barwell being near sighted; green policies as a whole received a rough deal. Or to put it less elegantly, in the words of John Cridland, director general of the CBI - “this budget sticks two fingers up at David Cameron’s promise to build a clean future.”

Rough treatment, sticking two fingers up, mugging pensioners…no wonder the Daily Mail portrayed Osborne as a hoodie wearing thug. But is it Osborne who is being singled out for rough treatment? Only last week, James Murray, editor of BuisnessGreen, argued that Osborne is set to become the greenest chancellor in history. He is giving us the Green Investment Bank, carbon floor price and the Green - albeit dubious - Deal. Post-Budget, is Murray regretting his pre-Budget statements or hoping that he will be vindicated? And how could the green movement learn to follow Cameron’s pre-election lead and ‘hug a hoodie’ like Osborne?

Perhaps Osborne is right to promote the business in ‘sustainable business.’ Last month, research in the USA and Europe has found that there could be a correlation between unemployment and the likelihood of belief in global warming.  If you spend a period of time unemployed, it seems you are prone to treat your belief in the issue as a luxury you can no longer afford. Therefore, to increase support for key sustainable polices, you need a population that believes in the urgent need for sustainable infrastructure, and to have such a population, you need a population that is enjoying a low rate of unemployment.

Is Osborne going the right way to increase employment? So far, the answer is a resounding no. His plan to slash corporate tax and personal income tax for the richest can not guarantee more jobs. Even if oil and gas, big Budget winners, get more people working, there would be a perverse logic to employ people in a fossil-fuel industry so they will be more likely to believe in climate change.

Tthe Chancellor needs to be sold on the idea of green jobs. Sustainablity and business have to work together. If Osborne wants jobs, the green movement needs to show that it can deliver. Looking to the USA, we can see this is a tough argument to make. What is a green job? Why should people want a green job? How benefical are they? Sadly, Osborne has showed he has no interest in answering these questions. So it’s up to sustainable business leaders to inform him and - more importantly - voters. We need more articles in right wing, climate sceptic papers to shift the argument to show that green jobs are the way forward for the UK. This is sustainable businesses big task. But it is also sustainable businesses big opportunity.
 

Share +
green, global warming, osborne, grannytax, budget, unemployment, budget 2012