LABOUR'S GREEN U-TURN HAS LEFT ME FEELING HOPELESS

Keir Starmer should think long and hard about the consequences

A version of this article was published in the ‘i’ newspaper on February 8th 2024.

Our planet is heading remorselessly towards a hothouse hell, but our politicians just don't seem to care. On the very day that the 1.5ºC dangerous climate change guardrail is smashed - for the first time - over the course of twelve months, the labour party announces it is ditching its £28 billion green investment pledge, claiming the country can't afford it. The reality is, however, that we can't afford not to do this.

Globally, last year was the hottest on record, and very likely saw the highest temperatures for around 120,000 years. We are only just into February, but already the world is on track to be even hotter in 2024. Just nine years on from the Paris climate summit, where world leaders committed to trying to stop a long-term global temperature rise (compared to pre-industrial times) of 1.5ºC, this critical limit has been crossed for the first time for a whole year.

Optimists will point out that this is just one year, and that there is still time to prevent this rise becoming permanent, but this is an extraordinarily naive viewpoint. Carbon emissions continue to climb year-on-year, fossil fuel corporations are becoming more bullish about expanding operations, and governments the world over are refusing to walk the talk on effective climate action. The COP climate conferences - including last year's, held in the United Arab Emirates petro-state - continue to be big on fine words, but distinctly lacking in binding plans and pledges that will actually bring emissions down. The truth is that, by 2030, the 1.5ºC threshold is likely to be crossed permanently, and the 2ºC mark within sight.

Assuming the polls are even close to being accurate, then, Keir Starmer will be in power for one of the most critical five-year periods in human history. A make-or-break time when we either do what needs to be done to give our children at least a chance of inheriting a world worth living in, or condemn our descendents to a grim existence on a planet we would barely recognise. In light of this, turning away from the wholesale greening of economy and society is bordering on suicidal or maybe - as the governing generation will not be the one that reaps the whirlwind - that should be murderous.

Furthermore, using the excuse that the country can't afford it is simply nonsensical. At least two recent studies show that continued business as usual sets us firmly on course towards economic and societal collapse, perhaps a soon as 2040. The argument that we can't afford to act to stymie an existential threat is no argument at all. On the contrary we need to do everything we can to prevent such a scenario, including recognising that ever more growth - another of the Labour leadership's callow election proclamations - is simply not possible on an increasingly carbon-compromised planet with limited resources and a collapsing environment.

The last thing we need is hell-for-leather growth at the expense of a liveable future. Instead, we need a reformation of society and economy whereby measures that reduce emissions and use less resources are rewarded at the expense of harmful activities. Rather than costing the Earth, this would contribute towards saving it, by reallocating funding rather than adding massively to it. An excellent start would be to get rid of the tax breaks and subsidies that support the continued exploitation of fossil fuels, alongside major investment in clean, cheap - even free - public transport, and punitive taxes on gas-guzzling SUVs.

Given that our world is virtually certain to be a least 1.5ºC, and quite possibly 2ºC hotter for the long haul, we will also need to allocate spending to make the UK more resilient to the explosion of extreme weather that we are already beginning to see, and to the future impacts of significantly higher seas. This means retrofitting our poorly-insulated housing stock to cope with future 40C+ heatwaves that will otherwise take many thousands of lives every summer. A rethink of land-use and housing policies is also vital if wildfires, river floods and storm surges are not to exact ever greater tolls on lives and livelihoods.

So Mr. Starmer, having turned your back on the desperately needed measures to tackle the climate emergency, can I suggest you think long and hard about the consequences and then turn again in favour of the UK's, and the planet's, future? It shouldn't be too hard. You have, after all, had plenty of practice at U-turning.