Monthly review of news, events, analysis and action at Friends of the Earth

Mike Childs

08 August 2012

If your memory is as poor as mine then you'd find a regular monthly summary of news, events, analysis, publications and action from Friends of the Earth a darned useful thing. So here it is.

The Liberal Democrats were in the news this month not only for promising to block Tory plans to gerrymander constituency boundaries but also for stopping George Osborne's attempts to slash subsidies for on-shore wind by a quarter. The cuts made were only 10 per cent but there has been much speculation about Energy Secretary Ed Davey giving into the Chancellor's desire for a second dash for gas in return (and as @craigbennett3 tweeted, also handing out more fossil fuel subsidies). Has Ed Davey won the battle but lost the war? The test will be whether he wins an electricity decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill. This is the primary focus of our Clean British Energy Campaign.A decision on this is expected in October.

Stern was also in the news this month. Not the good guy, Nick Stern the economist who so brilliantly pointed out the climate change is a bad idea economically, as well as socially and environmentally. It was the bad guy, Todd Stern, chief climate negotiator for the USA, who at a lecture as a US college suggested that there had to be flexibility on a global target of no more than 2 degrees warming. By flexibility he meant get rid of it. As I tweeted (@mikechilds1), this is akin to asking for flexibility to save the planet. NB: he's now made a poor job of back-tracking.

Despite the gloom however positive change is happening, as evidenced by Sainsbury's installing 65,000 solar panels across its stores and a new Marine Energy Park in Scotland. As campaign strategy guru Chris Rose argues persuasively in his latest newsletter, we should be shouting about this stuff as positive change happening will convince more people than doom and gloom.

That said, it's hard work at the grassroots getting wind farms planning approval, as Friends of the Earth's South East campaigner Brenda Pollack testifies. Five years to get permission for four wind turbines does seem just a wee bit out of kilter with an urgent need to cut emissions. The economics benefits of green energy for a region should surely result in faster approvals, as our briefings on the South West and Hull demonstrate.

Meanwhile our wild and unpredictable summer - which the Met Office says is more likely due to climate change - still sees the bees busy at work. Our The Bee Cause Campaign goes from strength to strength with Wales leading the fight to save those wonderfully helpful pollinators who do so much to get the food on our tables. As the Government's draws up its new pesticides action plan we are encouraging people to let DEFRA know that bees need more protection.

It's not only bees that are vital for a healthy and bountiful planet. Campaigners are too. And in many parts of the world environmental campaigning is a dangerous business. Thankfully Miguel Correa, a campaigner from Friends of the Earth Paraguay, has been released from jail after being wrongly arrested at a police-led eviction of peasant farmers.

Finally, what we consume matters.

So you might be interested in DEFRA's new sustainable development indicators consultation. Friends of the Earth will be responding to say that these need to be aligned with the developing EU dashboard of indicators, which Friends of the Earth Europe is campaigning on, including a land footprint blogged about by colleague Michael Warhurst. The DEFRA consultation will last around three months as the Government hasn't yet curtailed democracy by instituting ridiculously short consultation periods.

And if you're wondering what you might eat in the future a new report by the Sustainable Consumption Institute at Manchester University makes interesting reading/watching  and our first thoughts on it.

If unlike me you are young and had a virtuous and clean life you probably remembered all of this news anyway. If that's the case, apologies. For the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed reading the first of these monthly blogs.

p.s. If you're off on your holidays you might want to take some reading with you - 'How Much is Enough? The Love of Money and the Case for the Good Life' by Robert and Edward Skidelsky. Read The Independent's review here.

p.p.s any journalists reading this will be pleased to know that the Information Commissioner has clarified public authority requirements to provide you with environmental information. Since information is power, use it wisely ;)