8 views
Sustainable Economy > Published by Joss Garman, September 27th 2010 at 3:21 pm

High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda

Print Friendly

There are high hopes from the climate movement that the new Labour leader will make his party greener and better scrutinise David Cameron’s claim to lead ‘the greenest government ever’.

Ed-Miliband-environmentReacting to Ed Miliband’s victory on Saturday, the head of Greenpeace John Sauven told the BBC:

“We have high hopes that the man who brought an end to the era of coal-fired power stations with unlimited emissions will be the right man to hold Cameron’s ‘greenest government ever’ to their promises.”

While this morning, Friends of the Earth’s director Andy Stkins described Ed Miliband as “the greenest leader of the Labour Party to date”.

So far the coalition have cut clean energy budgets and environmental watchdogs, they’ve supported new deep sea oil drilling, and they’ve already rolled back on key green pledges on illegal logging and support for green energy pioneers, as well as putting on hold promised new regulations to clean up power stations. There has even been speculation that the Department of Energy and Climate Change could be shut down altogether, crippled by the anticipated scale of the cuts to its budgets.

It’s no wonder therefore that a Yougov poll published today on Liberal Democrat Voice shows that half of Lib Dem members think that the coalition should be making protection of the environment more of a priority. Equally, three-quarters want clean energy budgets protected or increased, and the majority of Lib Dems favour a moratorium on deep sea oil drilling until lessons have been learned from the BP spill.

Widely applauded for his efforts in Copenhagen and in changing the last government’s attitude to green issues, Labour’s new leader could very well make a pitch to outflank the coalition in this area.

During his campaign Ed Miliband made clear that as leader he would advocate for a more interventionist green industrial strategy, and it is certain Labour’s new leader will, for example, put pressure on the coalition to adequately finance the new green investment bank, protect key clean energy budgets, and lobby for the UK to take a pro-active role in global climate talks.

  • http://twitter.com/thedancingflea/status/25690583409 Claire Spencer

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/jeevanrai/status/25690618198 Jeevan Rai

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/greentomatonrg/status/25690664795 Green Tomato Energy

    Let's hope so! http://tiny.cc/n4iwl

  • http://twitter.com/jossgarman/status/25690725051 Joss Garman

    Will 'Green Ed' put climate back on the agenda? High hopes – just blogged: http://bit.ly/dAc0EM

  • http://twitter.com/brianfmoylan/status/25690898864 Brian Moylan

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/25691097944 Shamik Das

    Forget all the "Red Ed" bollocks – it's all about "Green Ed" http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/nextleft/status/25691180193 Sunder Katwala

    RT @shamikdas: Forget all the "Red Ed" bollocks – it's all about "Green Ed" http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/michael2lewis/status/25691382732 Michael Lewis

    RT @shamikdas: Forget all the "Red Ed" bollocks – it's all about "Green Ed" http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/brianfmoylan/status/25691391742 Brian Moylan

    RT @shamikdas: Forget all the "Red Ed" bollocks – it's all about "Green Ed" http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/davidtaylor85/status/25691437243 David Taylor

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/labourcid/status/25691465554 LCID

    RT@leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/jackstone36/status/25691477177 Jack Stone

    RT @shamikdas: Forget all the "Red Ed" bollocks – it's all about "Green Ed" http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/c_a_jonestechno/status/25691605599 CAROLE JONES

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/thomasevans/status/25691659936 Tom Evans

    Hope so! RT @LabourCID: RT@leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/c_a_jonestechno/status/25691742678 CAROLE JONES

    http://bit.ly/bsMUuX – Trust Murdoch to start lying before the votes were even cold.

  • http://twitter.com/jruddy99/status/25691833738 John Ruddy

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes 'Green Ed' will put climate change back up agenda http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/andy_s_64/status/25692030886 Andy Sutherland

    RT @leftfootfwd: High hopes ‘Green Ed’ will put climate change back up agenda: http://bit.ly/bsMUuX by @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/climateactivist/status/25692204882 Calvin

    RT @jossgarman: Will 'Green Ed' put climate back on the agenda? High hopes – just blogged: http://bit.ly/dAc0EM

  • http://www.realstreet.co.uk/ Stewart Cowan

    Before the election, the three leaders were almost scratching each others’ eyes out to get the “pink” vote. Now they pretend to be as green as they are cabbage looking.

    In Ed’s case, he is dangerously cabbage looking, because he believes in the carbon credit scam.

  • http://www.twitter.com/GreenRupertRead R.Read

    Thanks Joss. Like you, I have some hopes for Ed M., as a plural and vageuly-green-leaning Leader: see my piece about his visit to Norwich when I met him, during the Leadership campaign: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/a-green-perspective-on-ed-miliband/ But I also have real reservations. Not least of these is Ed’s _record_: serious doubts have been expressed, and justly so in my view, about the role he played in Copenhagen; and he has still not satisfactorily answered most of the questions I have been raising for years now about Britain’s record on carbon emissions (which, under Labour, was much worse in reality than the spin of either Miliband enabled the public to understand: see my piece here on this: http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/05/22/the-miliband-commitment-to-climate-change-is-mostly-just-rhetoric/
    So I would say: Yes, there is some hope. But the _record_ is not as promising as most people seem to believe. And so Ed has a helluvalot to prove. I will be surprised if he ever – as Opposition Leader or as PM – contributes half as much in this area as Caroline Lucas MP – Leader in spirit of the real Opposition, in my [admittedly biassed] view…

  • http://www.politicaldynamite.com Tim

    Ed Miliband talked a good talk ahead of Copenhagen, but his policies, if implemented, would have ensured environmental catastrophe – as Greenpeace showed at the time. But nevertheless some environmentalists were fooled by him.

    Now Ed Miliband talks the talk on the economy. We await his policies. Nevertheless I am sure that Joss Garman, you have been fooled

    The approach of progressives should be to open space on the left that he can move in to – not to buy in to the brand and become impotent

    I spotted a good blog on Miliband the younger here –

    http://aleddilwynfisher.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/o-brother-where-art-thou-how-to-feel-about-ed/

  • Joss Garman

    @ Tim – I don’t disagree that the last government had a completely incoherent approach to climate change – the third runway offering a case in point.

    Equally, I dont disagree that the approach of progressive should be to open space. Thats precisely why the climate movement and groups like Plane Stupid and Greenpeace are so important.

    But thats not to say we should not recognise that Ed M was the man who, for example, oversaw the low carbon transition plan and who opposed the Heathrow expansion plan. Thats why there is hope amongst the climate movement about his leadership.

    But we shall see.

  • http://twitter.com/mariaarbiter/status/25714415429 maria arbiter

    RT @shamikdas: Forget all the "Red Ed" bollocks – it's all about "Green Ed" http://bit.ly/bsMUuX

  • http://twitter.com/thegreengod/status/25736718039 thegreengod

    High hopes 'Green Ed' will put climate change back up agenda …: Widely applauded for his efforts in Copenhagen a… http://bit.ly/dc8u8D

  • Mr. Sensible

    I am hopefull too, but you rightly refer to the Third Runway, Joss.

    That was a bad idea by the last government and getting rid of it is 1 of the very few good things the Con Dems have done.

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/10/conservative-party-environmental-record-criticised/ Tories preach ‘green growth’ amid mounting criticism of their green record | Left Foot Forward

    [...] to ‘green growth’ could be a response to the calculation that Ed Miliband will likely try and outflank the coalition in this [...]

  • http://www.jossgarman.com/?p=678 Tories preach ‘green growth’ amid mounting criticism of their green record | Joss Garman

    [...] to ‘green growth’ could be a response to the calculation that Ed Miliband will likely try and outflankthe coalition in this [...]