Climate Hope

Guest post by Well Hung Parliament 's William Hayward: Ah the Greens. “I’d love to see the Greens get in” the statement uttered by every left of centre voter right before they don't vote for them. So how can the Greens ever hope to get into power when even people who want them to be elected won't vote for them? Well one great solution would be to shout about a number of key policies they have which are not directly linked to the environment. That way you don't just appeal to eco-warriors and people living close to sea level. Here are four policies that the Greens could quite literally fight an election on without necessarily appealing to their key demographic. The EU referendum So it wouldn't be outrageous to say that the further right on the political spectrum you are the more likely you are to be against the EU and therefore in favour of a referendum you think would lead to an exit. You would therefore think that a political party broadly positioned to th...

The Guardian has started a campaign. If you’re at all interested in climate change, you’ve probably seen it. It’s called ‘keep it in the ground’ , and calls on the world’s fossil fuel companies to leave about 80 per cent of their known reserves unburned. This picture pretty much sums up the idea: To make this happen, the Guardian is encouraging businesses, charities, trust funds, and anyone with skin in the game to ‘divest’ from fossil fuels. It’s doing this, in the words of its editor in chief, Alan Rusbridger, “in the firm belief that it will force the issue now into the boardrooms and inboxes of people who have billions of dollars at their disposal.” For the Guardian, this “simple idea” is the key to meaningful action on climate change. I’m not convinced.

There was yet another climate march in London last Saturday. Somewhere between 5,000 and 20,000 people went along. I wasn’t one of them. That evening, I met a friend who had attended. They, not unreasonably, given my well-publicised interests, asked why I had chosen to be absent. I gave many answers, none of them good. Among the reasons I gave were: I’d been planning a particular countryside walk for months and Saturday’s weather made it almost criminal not to go; I was a bit hungover and the idea of getting the tube into central London felt like a mountain I simply could not climb; I wasn’t sure my presence would really make a difference, anyway. Now, there are strong qualitative reasons why the first two explanations are better classed as ‘excuses’. If I care about this issue - and I do - they don’t really cut it, on any level. But the third - that my presence was never going to tip the scales in favour of climate action -  sounds plausible. At the very least I can ...