November 2, 2023 Climate Change
Climate Politics Is Hurting The Climate
Climate action is both an urgent priority and a long-term strategy, but the people in charge have different concerns and short-term goals.
Whoever inherits responsibility for Net Zero is only as committed to it as it is convenient for them. Once it becomes difficult for their position, their career, or their party, they drop it or water it down.
With laws, schemes, and incentives constantly announced, altered, and abandoned, it can seem impossible for businesses not only to keep up, but also to plan for the short or long term.
Politicians come and go, but the environmental urgency remains.
Here’s why climate politics is hurting the climate and holding back businesses, and how you can cut through the noise to properly prepare for your switch to green energy.
How politics hurts the climate
Our political system doesn’t reward long-termism. Votes are won with big, headline-grabbing policies with immediate impact, not with thoughtful laws that look 25 or 50 years into the future.
Progress is also vulnerable to the changing mood of voters or constituents. Ipsos’s ‘Net Zero Living’ report found that ‘The UK public are on board with net zero policies’, but that ‘public support for net zero policies can be fragile as it can drop sharply when potential lifestyle and — in particular — cost implications are presented.’
That could be that the government delayed the oil boiler ban (among other environmental laws) — fear of backlash from voters.
Our constituency system also means that specific areas of the country can have a disproportionate influence over Net Zero. For example, if a senior politician is the MP for an area that opposes local wind farms or solar installations, they may block those projects for fear of losing their seat.
Finally, political parties rely on donors to fund them. If those donors come from industries that stand to lose from Net Zero policies (like oil & gas magnates), they can easily apply pressure on party leaders to hold back or dilute certain environmental policies.
Businesses that try to keep on top of the developments and plan their transition to green energy often find they cannot do either.
How the media hurts the climate
The Net Zero debate is often shrill and misinformed. For that we can thank the commercial models of print, broadcast, and social media.
To sell newspapers, or to get clicks and views, the media is incentivised to interview, quote, and amplify the most extreme voices. Shock and outrage get attention, and we live in the attention economy.
Social media thrives on engagement — people clicking, liking, resharing, and commenting on posts — and nothing is more likely to create that engagement than controversy. Social media algorithms see that certain topics and profiles generate the most engagement, and then promote those to their users.
The most extreme (and least representative) voices rise to the top. The outside observer could easily believe the only choice in the environmental debate is between conspiracy theorists who believe climate change is a hoax, and people who glue themselves to roads during rush hour.
Businesses hoping to make a green transformation are left to make an extra effort to find well-informed advice, and to identify and block out the misinformation.
How businesses can go green despite the challenges
The airwaves may be taken up with unhelpful extremism, and government policy may be impossible to account for or predict, but despite all that you can plan your transition to green business energy and find commercial and environmental advice that makes sense.
When you’re looking for sources to trust, look out for those that appear ‘tabloid’. Sensationalism doesn’t often accompany good advice. Well thought-out and well researched ideas are clearly different, once you have found them. It’s just a matter of finding them.
For a start, we recommend that you look for resources from the following bodies and publications.
The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology
Forest Research, particularly their data on fuel types and carbon emissions
If you’d like to find out more about which green energy is suitable for your business, we have a nationwide network of expert installers who are ready to offer no-obligation advice about heat and power. Get in touch on 01621 892613.
