It Must Be Said
There will be many who will criticise Tory MP Chris Skidmore’s 340-page Mission Zero report.
They’ll probably say it doesn’t reach far enough, is far too obsessed with business benefits, and doesn’t question the UK’s woefully inadequate 2050 Net Zero target.
Climate activists may be appalled that the report doesn’t call for radical overhaul of capitalist norms, whilst climate change objectors will also be aghast that the consequent work schedule will overshadow all other get-rich-quick opportunities. And, for extra discomfort, this report highlights how many great opportunities have been squandered on their watch. Both camps will be outraged in equal measure: a sure sign that this report is a small, practical, step in the right direction and probably the best we can hope for this side of a General Election or a national uprising.
Leaders across the political spectrum have been far too tentative in addressing our Climate Crisis. The public are, at last, beginning to notice the avoidance. This is far from the only no-go area that currently prevents reality-facing action for fear of tribal trauma or tabloid outrage. After a decade of tired Tory economics there is now a long list of priorities demanding urgent treatment and darn it, all those wounds are being overtaken by the most demanding of all — a mission to survive. Not a mission to keep up appearances, nor a mission to pretend that we haven’t collectively landed ourselves in deep trouble.
If delivery action on the current report’s proposals still falls short, if the overwhelming majority of the electorate fails to engage in battle, if the naysayers’ “Never” never ends, then, surely, we will sleep-walk into oblivion.
Leadership priorities need to change, ‘like there is no tomorrow’.
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The article was first published ‘LibDem Voice’ — the online journal of the UK’s Liberal Democrat Party — and is archived in the Groupe Intellex listing for Governance.
