20 | New Scientist | 7 December 2019
TWO ice sculptures melting under
the glare of TV studio lights has
become an iconic image of the
UK’s general election. Channel 4
News used them to represent the
absence of Conservative and
Brexit party leaders during the
country’s first TV election debate
dedicated to climate change. The
heads of five other parties sparred
on subjects including aviation,
tree-planting, energy production
and meat consumption.
It is no surprise that many
commentators have dubbed this
the climate election. Barely a day
has passed without a bidding war
on who will provide the most
renewable electricity, make homes
greener fastest or plant the most
trees (see “Millions of trees”, right).
It is quite a turnaround from
the last election campaign, in2017. Back then, Nick Molho felt
compelled to write to newspapers
to lament the glaring absence
of climate change on the agenda.
“Obviously I didn’t need to do
that this time round,” says the
executive director of Aldersgate
Group, which lobbies on behalf
of a group of major businesses
that want stronger climate action.
There is a good reason for
the shift. During the last election,
just 8 per cent of people said the
environment was in the top three
issues facing the country. Now
polling firm YouGov puts the
figure at 26 per cent, behind only
the economy, health and Brexit.
“It’s really different to previous
elections,” says Jim Watson,
director of the UK Energy Research
Centre. “That’s welcome, because
you’re getting this competition
between the parties to come up
with plans and detail.”
So how should a voter navigate
the blizzard of claims if climate
change, rather than Brexit, is their
major concern on 12 December?
An obvious starting point is
the year by which parties are
promising to reduce the UK’s
emissions to net zero. On that
basis alone, a voter would back the
Green party, which has promised- But with the Greens polling
in single digits, their chances of
forming a government are
essentially zero. Instead, we will
mostly focus on the UK’s three
main parties.
Labour has rowed back from
a similar pledge to the one from
the Greens, instead offering a
“substantial majority of our
emissions reductions by 2030”.
The Liberal Democrats offer 2045
at the latest, and the Conservatives
2050, which is the deadline signed
into law earlier this year.
Some say the headline date isn’t
the big issue. “Changing the date
of the target right now is less
important than getting on andTories and a year before Labour.
There is also jockeying on who
will be strongest on upgrading
millions of existing homes.
Labour says “almost all” will meet
the “highest” energy efficiency
standards by 2030, saving an
average home more than £400
a year on energy bills. The party
boldly says that 50 per cent of heat
will be low-carbon rather than the
gas boilers most people rely on
today, up from less than 5 per cent
today. “That felt to me like a real
stretch,” says Watson.
Instead of numbers, the Lib
Dems offer “an emergency ten-
year programme to reduce energy
consumption from all buildings”,
funded with £6 billion a year.
The Conservatives’ pledge is much
lower: £2.5 billion over five years
for grants to upgrade homes, and
£3.8 billion over a decade to cut
emissions from social housing.
There is less of a gap betweenThe climate election
The issue of climate change has risen up the political agenda,
but how will the UK’s parties deliver? Adam Vaughan reportsIce sculptures stand in for
absent politicians during
a Channel 4 TV debatedelivering it. We can always
change it later,” says Molho.
“When the target date should be
is a distraction. It [2050] is hard
enough already. People should be
looking at what the parties will do
within the next term of office,”
says Watson.
That is partly because 2050
is the date recommended by
the UK’s independent climate
advisers, and partly because
those same advisers have spent
the past few years warning that
the country is lacking the policies
to meet its carbon targets for 2025
and 2030. While the UK has made
huge strides in cleaning up
electricity generation, progress
in other sectors has been lacking.
In that case, what are the climate
pledges to look for? “The big ones
are homes, transport and industry,
as well as finishing off the
decarbonisation of the power
system,” says Paul Ekins at
University College London.
The Lib Dems would force all new
homes to be zero carbon soonest,
by 2021, four years before the“The net zero deadline is a
distraction. Look at what
the parties will do in the
next term of office”UK general electionKIRST
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