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THE FIGHT TO BE GREEN

The arrival of David Miliband at Defra last year signalled that the Government was gearing up for a nuclear future and preventing other political parties from claiming the green agenda. CIWEM Executive Director, Nick Reeves, reports from Westminster.

If you believe that a sustainable environment is about the application of robust science and technical innovation you're only half right. The environment, as an issue, is as political and murky as they come. And as the political parties line up to prove their eco-credentials, the fight to be green is on. But, no matter how compelling the science that ought to steer the UK's direction of travel, as a society we are put at risk by the short-term thinking of the political classes - and therefore of governments - who remain hard-wired to quick technological fixes. Thinking beyond the next election is as rare as hen's teeth. And, with all the main parties giving green issues more attention, it's becoming clear that the environment could decide the next election. My regular contact with politicians at Westminster is becoming much more interesting; the environment is now the chat of choice.

So, with green issues now up there with health and education some politicians will now speak more openly about what's going on at Westminster. Much of what is said is gossip or speculation, of course, and has to be treated with a large, but healthy, dose of scepticism. Except, that is, for the gossip about the Prime Minister's enthusiasm for nuclear. This was one of Parliament's worst kept secrets. Even before the energy review was over, Tony Blair wrong-footed some of his Ministers by declaring his support for nuclear in a speech to the CBI.  

Certain other speculation, relating to the cull of Ministers at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) following Tony Blair's Cabinet reshuffle in May 2006 and Margaret Beckett's move to the Foreign Office, has some real substance to it and suggests all sorts of fascinating scenarios for future policy on the environment. Meanwhile, many eco-savvy folk believe that Defra needs to change, and as fast as you like.  Its problems managing with a reduced budget are having a serious impact, with many projects being shelved or abandoned altogether.

It's worth recalling that during the foot and mouth crisis in 2001, Margaret Beckett oversaw the greatest cull of livestock ever experienced. She left Defra as bird flu threatened. She also left at a time when agriculture has been downgraded to a part-time business dominated by the supermarkets; the south-east of England is threatened with development beyond environmental limits; climate change emissions are rising fast and the UK is unable to meet its own targets; communities are up in arms about airport expansion; nuclear power is set to make a comeback; the fishing industry is in decline; the waste sector in turmoil; there is soaring consumption of finite natural resources; more noise and light pollution; and drought is causing water scarcity and is affecting biodiversity. Under her regime we also saw the banning of hunting with dogs that has exacerbated the divide between urban and rural dwellers.

Given that Defra was charged with protecting the environment and  promoting and delivering sustainable development you might be forgiven for thinking that all is not well. But, in my view, Margaret Beckett and her team were really up against it with other Government departments going against the Defra grain. The launch of the Government's 'UK Strategy for Sustainable Development: Securing the Future' was a huge step forward and promised action on sustainability across government. However, in areas of planning, transport, industry, and even health, we have seen examples of Ministers doing the exact opposite of what was and is required for a better physical environment. The best that Defra has been able to achieve, according to one green group, is the enforcement of EU Directives, and a valiant attempt to green government across the piece.

The new(ish) Secretary of State, David Miliband, arrived at Defra with some real advantages and opportunities, and he's now been spoken of as a future leader of the Labour Party and a Prime Minister in-waiting. Because of Defra's advice to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and it's contribution to the much maligned energy review, the environment and sustainability have risen to near the top of the political agenda. This has prompted the other political parties to take action. This means that the environment will become a battleground where seats in the House of Commons will be won and lost and where the outcome of the next election could be decided.  So, if New Labour want a further term in office it must back Miliband as he squares-up to his Ministerial colleagues on out-of-control car and plane emissions, on unsustainable housing development, and on energy.  With the politicos noting from recent opinion polls that the public has a much greater appetite for green initiatives, and with green NGOs having a track record of slavering over new environment ministers (before they eventually turn on them), he should be able to harness popular but meaningful environmental initiatives during his honeymoon period.

But Miliband has a problem, though. Margaret Beckett had a team of Ministers who were genuinely knowledgeable and interested in green issues. Elliot Morley and Jim Knight understood farming, wildlife and water. Their successors are metropolitan Ministers with no known track record on green issues or rural affairs. And Ian Pearson, the Minister responsible for 'climate change and the environment', came from the DTI as a known advocate of nuclear, prompting the suggestion in some quarters that Defra has been asked to smooth the way for the revival of nuclear power and reject the advice of Sir Jonathon Porritt's Sustainable Development Commission that nuclear is not a sustainable solution to the UK's future energy needs at this time.   

Meanwhile, the Minister for rural issues, landscape and biodiversity, Barry Gardiner, is another former DTI man with no real track record or knowledge of his brief. Lord Rooker, the other member of the Defra Ministerial team (who came from the Northern Ireland Office), is an old hand and, although he knows his way around, is not really regarded as genuinely green-thinking. Putting Ministers with no knowledge or experience of green issues in charge of some of the most important areas of government might look foolhardy. On the other hand it could be an inspired move and just what Defra needs; Ministers with no baggage, and the possibility of some fresh thinking on climate change, on energy, on farming, on water resources and the other myriad of issues that will determine the quality of life for generations to come.

To prove the point, David Miliband and his team have trumped the other political parties by promising climate change legislation that will hold Ministers legally responsible for meeting targets on carbon emissions. This was a bold and historic move designed not only to encourage other countries to follow suit but to show that UK plc is serious about tackling global warming.  While future generations may wish that more had been done sooner, and question whether a target reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 60 percent by 2050 was enough, they will not resent, I trust, the serious attempt to start now. Climate change legislation shows that never again, in any democratic country, will we have leaders who can deny human-induced climate change and get elected.  This could prove to be Defra's legacy to us all.