Charles Glover comments in the Telegraph how there was a touch of deja vou about the launch of Sir Nicholas Stern’s report on the dangers of climate change. He tells us how the launch at the Royal Society on Monday reminded him of a speech given 18 years ago in the same building by the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Talking to other journalists at the launch Glover asked what exactly had changed between Mrs Thatcher saying we had begun “a massive experiment with the system of the planet itself” and Gordon Brown saying “The scientific evidence is now clear.” He adds, “what planet was Gordon Brown on in 1988?”. And Glover has a point. Lady Thatcher was the first world leader to draw attention to climate change, and Glover argues that it is Labour’s failure to follow her lead which has led to an increase in carbon emissions since 1997. He adds that Labour in fact inherited falling emissions from the Conservatives.
So, it is not as though the Government have been unaware of the dangers that Climate Change represents. Glover argues that the scientific predictions made in the Stern Report are little different from those made by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change in 1990, and subsequently in 1995 and 2001. As a result, Glover is left wondering why the Government has made such a big deal out of Stern’s report. He puts it down to the electoral danger of David Cameron, who has successfully led the debate on the environment over the last year, leaving the Government on the back foot. And so Stern’s report was a perfect opportunity for the Government to regain the initiative.
If so, I doubt the Government can. The Conservatives have not been in power for nearly 10 years and have not presided over an increase in emissions, but they have worked hard to increase the Party’s standing on the environment. But as Glover shows, this is not the first time the Conservatives have led the debate in this area. Deja vu indeed.
