BREXIT, Brexit, Brexit. UK politics has been dominated by little else since the country鈥檚 2016 vote to leave the European Union. The upcoming general election on 12 December may finally break the impasse, but a far bigger issue overshadows this vote: climate change.
Environmental issues have risen up the UK鈥檚 political agenda recently, buoyed by concern about plastics in the ocean and publicity surrounding climate protests by Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg鈥檚 school strikes. A continuing spate of extreme weather events, most recently record-breaking rainfall and flooding in parts of central and northern England, has brought the practical implications of a changing climate to the fore of many people鈥檚 minds.
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In a recent Ipsos Mori poll, . That is up from just 2 per cent in 2012, and is beaten only by Brexit, crime and the National Health Service.
The next UK government will have a huge opportunity to display international leadership on the climate, as the COP26 UN climate summit is due to be held in Glasgow in November 2020. There, nations will take stock of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and commit to ratcheting up efforts to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that emissions will need to fall 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero in 2050, to limit global warming to a 鈥渟afe鈥� level of 1.5掳C. Inaccurately reported as 鈥渨e only have 12 years to save the planet鈥�, the 2030 goal is still vitally important. The 2050 target is a legal requirement in the UK.
Assuming no more early elections 鈥� a slightly risky assumption, perhaps, given the febrile state of UK politics at the minute 鈥� the politicians taking office in a few weeks鈥� time will still be in charge in 2024. That is a crucial time frame if the UK is to meet the IPCC鈥檚 2030 goal.
That we should aim to hit that goal is a matter of global duty and naked self-interest, as it is for all developed economies. The UK was one of the first nations to industrialise and is responsible for a . Rich nations like the UK can provoke a trickle-down effect by lowering the cost of green tech, making it accessible to the rest of the world. We have already seen this with solar and wind farms.
This isn鈥檛 about telling anybody who to vote for: the complex, multi-party nature of this election and the perverse effects of the voting system makes any general advice pointless. But it is worth taking the time to inform ourselves what each of the parties says about climate change before putting a cross on the ballot paper. 麻豆传媒 aims to play its part: with my colleagues in our news department, we have put together a detailed analysis of the various UK political parties鈥� climate policies, which you can read here.
As the world warms and sea levels rise, who do you want to be in charge? Who is going to tackle the biggest problem of our age, and who is going to set us on the right path to 2030? Brexit may seem important now, but looking to the future there are no bigger questions to answer than these.
