energy news

Could it be a green election?


7th April, 2010

Could it be a green election?

Green business leaders remain divided on the scale of the impact that environmental and low carbon issues are likely to have on the election campaign, which was formally kicked off yesterday when Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed the election would take place on May 6.

Speaking last month, energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said that the environment and climate change could emerge as a "top three" issue during the campaign as each party seeks to tout its green credentials. However, he predicted that businesses and the electorate would have to display higher levels of interest in the low carbon economy if the leading parties are to make it a central feature of their campaigns.

Green business leaders are increasingly sceptical that this will be the case and are predicting low carbon policies will slip down the agenda as politicians choose to focus on the economy.

"What we'd like to see is the whole thing being fought on the architecture of a Green New Deal," Solarcentury founder Jeremy Leggett said  "The only person who has really articulated that approach so far is Vince Cable. Peter Mandelson talks about a low carbon revolution, but it is not a revolution of a scale anyone on Silicon Valley would recognize."

He added that there was a strong case for the parties to make low carbon policies a central part of their manifestos, particularly given the scale of the economic opportunity clean technologies represent. "I would not even couch it in terms of climate change and would solely focus on the opportunity," he said. " But I would be very surprised if I am not disappointed by the campaign."

Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of green energy firm Good Energy, expressed similar scepticism about the likely role of environmental issues in the forthcoming campaign.

"We're pleased to see the election has finally kicked off but disappointed to see that environment and energy policies seem to be taking a back-seat for all parties," she said. "The environmental business sector should be seen as one of the key drivers of jobs and growth to lead us out of the recession, not as an afterthought or add-on. Environmental matters are central to many voters concerns – it's a shame that political parties seem to have forgotten that."

However, others are convinced that environmental issues could yet emerge as a somewhat surprising electoral issue, particularly at a local level.

The Green Party announced today that it would for the first time put forward a full slate of candidates for London seats and is riding high in the polls in Brighton and Cambridge with a genuine chance of securing its first parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile, insiders have suggested that Ed Miliband's role as Labour's manifesto co-ordinator could result in many of the low carbon policies he has pioneered at the Department of Energy and Climate Change being adopted as part of the manifesto.

In addition, Miliband has repeatedly attempted to highlight lukewarm Conservative support for wind farms and renewable energy targets as an electoral issue, and the contentious topic of wind farms, as well as the credibility of the Conservatives' commitment to environmental issues, could yet play a key role in the campaign.

Margaret Ounsley, head of public affairs at WWF, said that a number of NGOs were working on an Ask the Climate Question campaign designed to encourage voters to ask their prospective candidates about their stance on climate change issues - a campaign fuelled in large part by polls and anecdotal evidence suggesting that some prospective MPs do not regard climate change as a significant issue.



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