Review of news, views and action - January 2013

Mike Childs

11 February 2013

Fear not, President Obama will save the day. After defeating Mitt Romney in the US Presidential election, Obama used his inauguration speech to tell us that he gets climate change and he's going to do something about it.  Whilst it would be easy to be cynical and dismiss the speech - or to be analytical and say that the maths in Congress makes his aims difficult - it is a very welcome start to the year.

Not the same can be said about David Cameron's speech on the European Union, which as our blog shows, makes no sense from a environmental perspective because, as we all know, global and regional pollution requires global and regional solutions. Even now, the EU looks set to take action on pesticides that endanger our bees whilst the UK Government dithers - although thankfully some retailers are responding to our pressure and scores of MPs are supporting us.  

Still, David Cameron did make a short speech reaffirming his commitment to make the Coalition the greenest Government ever.

Let's hope his Ministers will finally listen.

Because at the moment we are still having to battle to get the Government to put into law the need to decarbonise our electricity supply by 2030 which, as the Committee on Climate Change says, is critical in order to meet the Climate Change Act targets that Friends of the Earth successfully battled for. You can watch our campaigner Dave Timms giving evidence in Parliament on this.

In the House of Lords we are also battling to make sure that the Growth and Infrastructure Bill doesn't allow the Government to give the go-ahead to fracking for gas around the country with no regard to the views of local people. In these crazy times, when extreme weather events are happening across the globe, we also have to fight to ensure that the Bill includes a duty on Ministers to ensure infrastructure decisions are consistent with Climate Change Act targets.

Larry Elliott of the Guardian wrote an article, based on a briefing by Friends of the Earth, that reveal that at the same time as David Cameron is pledging to run the greenest government ever, and Barack Obama is promising action on climate change, Chancellor George Osborne is busy handing oil companies nearly £1 billion in tax breaks.

Of course it's not just governments that need to take action on climate change and broader environmental damage; companies have a critical role too.

Oil giant Shell was found guilty of oil pollution in Nigeria by a Dutch court at the end of January, which creates a helpful precedent that means multinationals can be held to account on their damages overseas. Our sister group in the Netherlands worked with our sister group in Nigeria to advance this case, as this blog by Elaine Gilligan testifies. 

Our Make it Better Campaign continues to pressure the smart phone manufacturers to take more responsibility for their supply chain; important given that Ipsos-Mori suggest 90 per cent of people will have a smart phone in two to three years - apparently 70 per cent of people would rather give up alcohol than their smart phone!

Other news this month - the Government has to go back to square one as valiant local campaigners in Cumbria defeated a misguided plan to create an underground nuclear waste dump in the area, despite dodgy geology; the Government announced high-speed rail two, a great idea poorly executed and a lower priority to much needed rail improvements elsewhere; action to save our precious peat-bogs inches forwards when giant strides would be more commensurate to the challenge; and the Government finally accepted that the nation's forests are safer in public hands.

Overall, the picture is one of incremental gains in the face of tough opposition despite the widespread evidence for more urgent action. Perhaps if Obama can shift the USA it will be a game-changer globally. Let's hope so, but until then: 'once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more'.

p.s. We should let this moment pass without recognising the efforts of a man who sadly is unlikely to be battling on our side for a while at least. Chris Huhne, former Energy and Climate Change Minister, is likely to face jail for wrong-doing. Over the years in the UK and the EU he has fought for progressive action on the environment. I'm sure he will do the same when he regains his freedom.