Review of 2012

Mike Childs

05 December 2012

What a year 2012 was.

Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, a diamond jubilee and even news of a royal baby - so much to talk about; so much joy.  It's also been a busy year for environmental issues, although sadly not quite so joyful, nor with the same public profile.

Here's a quick review of 2012 with a heads-up for what could be a good 2013.

Climate and Energy

Researchers now think that once global temperatures get above 1.6 degrees the Greenland ice sheet may begin irreversible melting, sending sea levels many meters higher over following centuries. Unfortunately scientists now tell us that we are on the path to a 4-6 degree rise. To have any chance of staying below 2 degrees, emissions need to peak by 2020 and we need to start taking carbon out of the air.  The World Bank has warned us that a 4 degree rise "is so different from the current one that it comes with high uncertainty and new risks that threaten our ability to anticipate and plan for future adaptation needs. The lack of action on climate change not only risks putting prosperity out of reach of millions of people in the developing world, it threatens to roll back decades of sustainable development".

Against this backdrop Friends of the Earth is battling to stop a new 'dash for gas' in the UK led by Chancellor George Osborne. This would destroy our ability to meet our legally binding carbon targets set in the Climate Change Act; won after 4 years of hard-fought campaigning by Friends of the Earth. Our Clean British Energy Campaign will continue this fight as a priority for the organisation through 2013.

Feeding people

Meanwhile misguided biofuels policy continues to drive up rising food prices. Land in developing countries is rapidly being bought up by foreign states in desperate attempts to solve their own food security worries. This is eroding the food security of the people living within these countries.  In 2013 we'll be stepping up the pressure on biofuels, working to convince pension funds to stop land-grabbing, and kick-starting a debate on sustainable diets.

Wildlife

Our Bee Cause campaign has caught the public attention; check out the year in photographs here. Bees are the biodiversity equivalent of the canary in the coalmine. People across the globe have noticed the decline of the bee.  It is waking up gardeners and farmers to the need to stand up for our environment. The bees and the plight of our ash trees look set to drive the environment to the top of the political agenda and create real opportunities for change in 2013.

Resource use

And, just as we are all getting excited about 4G smartphones, Friends of the Earth has set companies the challenge to improve production so we can also love how our phones are made. Our new Make It Better campaign is starting by asking phone brands whether their products use tin mined in environmentally devastating ways. 

With our colleagues in Friends of the Earth Europe we will be building on our success to date to ensure that resource use is taken seriously by businesses and governments.  

Economics and planning

But the biggest challenge of 2012 and 2013 is the Treasury's determination to ignore environmental issues as it pursues growth at all costs, called Osbornomics in our briefing on the issue. Pure madness since the CBI, numerous businesses, trade unions and others have all declared that green is working for the economy. In particular we will be fighting against scrapping planning rules that defend the environment and communities.

 What does 2013 have in store?

2013 will be an extremely busy year. Although the backdrop isn't good we need to remember the positives:

1.       Ingenuity -we are in a hole but we can get out of it. Solar panels are plummeting in price, offshore wind farms are being built, and every week there are advances in electric cars, energy storage and resource use. Technology can't solve all our ills, but the fact that humans are ingenious is something to celebrate and exploit.

2.       Green is working -for the first time in years Friends of the Earth, the Confederation of British Industry, and leading businesses are on the same side. We are all pressing for action to back the green economy. Remarkable.

3.       We're not in this alone -it can be hard battling against the odds day in, day out. Your support means a lot. But we have friends in high places. Tories like Greg Barker, William Hague and Oliver Letwin; many Liberal Democrats, Labour MPs, company chief executives and union bosses are firm supporters of the green agenda. We are creating - bit by bit, year by year - an unstoppable force. Together we can and will win.

There are some big fights in 2013 - an action plan to save the bees, a decarbonisation goal in the Energy Bill, products made better. These are fights that together we can win.