And another thing…

“Politicians are failing to lead the electorate, campaigners are failing to excite them. And the mass media is sticking to the supposedly safe havens of celebrity shag island. If this is winning, what does losing feel like?”

So, are we winning yet? For one answer, transport yourself back 10 years. The Rio summit, which managed to coincide with the slump of the last great wave of environmentalism, was fading from memory.

A few years of soggy summers had done little to spark mass concern over the climate (“Global warming? I wish…”). And the media was more or less unanimous in deciding that Green was just so last decade, darling. Fast forward to now.

The ravaged rainforests are back on the front pages, along with dire warnings of the global consequences of their destruction. The prime minister is insisting that climate change is the greatest challenge facing society, and badgering G8 colleagues into echoing his concerns in terms which would have been unimaginable a decade or so ago. And a dozen leading industrialists, including the heads of BP and Shell, have written to him demanding tougher action to curb carbon emissions.

Sure, there’s a huge chasm between rhetoric and action, but the truth is that if you’d held that little package out to environmental campaigners 10 years back, they’d have bitten your hand off for it. Against that backdrop, the publication of Securing the Future, the government’s strategy for sustainable development, [see our special briefing it is big and it is clever] could be seen as something of a crowning glory.

By bringing together the scientific imperative of environmental limits with the moral one of fairness and justice, it brings an unprecedented rigour and robustness to something which is still too often discussed in the flimsiest of terms. And by including concepts such as a ‘one planet economy’, it aligns official government policy with some of the most challenging concepts of environmental economics. On the surface, at least, the strategy would seem to be sending something of a green revolution spinning along the corridors of Whitehall.

All of which makes the sheer lack of attention, let alone controversy, which accompanied its publication more than a little dispiriting. Out there, things remain spookily quiet. Take the election: despite opening a few short weeks after the strategy’s launch, the campaign ran true to form by pretty much ignoring sustainability altogether. No-one who watched Labour’s glitzy manifesto launch would have imagined that the government felt remotely proud of this groundbreaking document. Au contraire.

“If you were hoping for interesting times, don’t despair. This could just the lull before the storm.”

Virtually the sole nod in its direction took the form of John Prescott announcing an uninspiring ragbag of recycling targets, while wearing that thunderously pissed-off expression which he normally reserves for stroppy local reporters. Meanwhile, the environment secretary was relegated to the silent supporting cast, tucked safely away from the spotlight in the row of nodding ministerial donkeys, – right next to Jack ‘Don’t Mention The War’ Straw.

If Labour had taken the words, “Voters don’t care about the environment, and neither do we”, and shoved them on one of their asinine posters, they couldn’t have made the point more clearly. The Lib Dems, to their credit, played the green card with less reluctance, and each of the parties dedicated a day to campaigning on poverty – although the fact that this happened to be a Sunday did little to detract from the sense that it was a pious gesture. Like the vicar who sees his church packed to the rafters once a year for midnight mass, you couldn’t help feeling that, while once a campaign was better than none, it didn’t exactly ooze commitment.

The tough truth is that politicians have failed to lead the electorate, and campaigners have failed to excite them. And while it sticks to the supposedly safe havens of celebrity shag island, the mass media is hardly prompting an outbreak of popular concern. If this is winning, what does losing feel like?

But if you were hoping for interesting times, don’t despair. This could just be the lull before the storm. There’s a decision looming over the future of our energy supplies whose repercussions will be much harder to ignore than arguments over recycling targets or other supposed green ephemera.

It could yet be the mother of all battles between the beguiling simplicity of a technical fix, and the sophisticated complexity of sustainable development. Then we’ll find out just how good environmentalists can be at winning hearts and minds – and whether the government has the slightest intention of living up to the courageous commitments of Securing the Future. So, are we winning yet? There’s a huge contest just about to begin – and unlike the election campaign, it might just be a thriller.

Martin Wright is editor-in-chief of Green Futures.

23 June 2005

Martin Wright