Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 23 June 2009

The right political argument, the right sort of deal and the right sort of campaign to make it happen are vital when preparing policies that will lead to an agreement on mitigating climate change at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) summit in Copenhagen in December, according to Ed Miliband, Britain’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Speaking at a conference on 20 June in London called ‘The Road to Copenhagen’, arranged by the Fabian Society, Miliband said, “At the core of action on climate change is a fundamental moral question about whether we care about the legacy we leave to future generations: about whether we think it is fair or just to take advantage of the planet’s resources as if there were no tomorrow. The question we must pose is whether we break the bond of the human race over our time on this planet: that the earth is held in trust by each generation for the next.”

Miliband noted that the issue is one of equality, fairness and morality, but it also needs the backing of a message of prosperity, not austerity.

“Part of the reason I am optimistic, not pessimistic, about the prospects for a global deal is that the debate about climate change has been transformed by the debate about the green economy,” the British climate change minister said. “Suddenly, people can see the argument that this is an essential part of building the post-recession economy — in developed and developing countries.”

He said people are prepared to be part of action on climate change, but they also want to know that they can continue to have a better life, and that the costs will be fairly spread.

“So the argument must be not for low growth but for low carbon growth and we must avoid a sense of subscribing to a no-growth hair-shirtism,” Miliband added. “The political argument must appeal to people’s values and people’s interests.”

To transform the politics means arguing for the right kind of deal. Developed countries are responsible for the present climate change situation. Thirty percent of global emissions in the period 1850-2000 are from the EU, 30% from the US and just 6% from China. Per capita emissions are still significantly higher in developed than developing countries: 10 tonnes per capita in the UK versus 5 tonnes in China.

“Yet at the same time, when we look ahead, 75% of the predicted increase in global emissions over the next two decades will come from developing countries, 50% from China alone,” he said. Thus there is no global deal worth its name without the action of both developed and developing countries.

“The way to resolve what seems like a paradox is that developed countries need to accept their responsibility to take the lead: the lead in cuts in emissions, not just with goals for 2050, but tough and ambitious interim targets,” the British climate change minister said. “At the same time, developing countries have to show they can move from high carbon growth to low carbon growth, with growth in emissions tailing off and eventually put into reverse.”

He said getting developing countries from high-carbon growth to low-carbon growth requires action on finance and technology by developed countries in particular. “If we are to ask developing countries to show substantial deviation from business as usual by 2020 and beyond, we need certain and stable flows of finance, including public finance,” Miliband said. “We also need institutions that command their respect in the way they operate, in their accountability mechanisms and in their governance.”

The United Kingdom can play its part as a developed country in making such a deal by accepting its responsibility to lead in its commitments to cut carbon emissions — by one-third by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.

“We need to show that whatever the agreement we reach at Copenhagen it will help us prevent dangerous climate change — consistent with minimising the chances of temperature rises above 2 degrees,” Miliband said.

As well as the right political case for Copenhagen and the right sort of deal, the right sort of campaign is needed to change the politics.

“Why can’t Copenhagen simply be left to governments?” Miliband asked. Because the great advances in the past — against slavery; for rights to representation in Parliament and at work; for equal rights for gay people; for freedom from racial discrimination — took progressive action by government; but none could happen without progressive forces in society. What makes change happen is popular pressure.

“I’ll be honest,” the climate change secretary said, “we in the UK don’t yet have the domestic or global campaign that we need. We’re behind. How many people know that this December is the make-or-break moment for our planet?”

But the British government’s Copenhagen manifesto will soon be launched, he added.

“The time to influence this debate is not in December, it is this month, it is now, now when the Major Economies Forum of the top 20 countries is meeting every month, and now that countries are coming out with their proposals – Japan last week, Australia the month before,” Miliband added. “We must avoid being people who lost sight of the bigger prize: the deal at Copenhagen.”

Click here to read the full text of Miliband’s address.

The Fabian Society has played a central role for more than a century in the development of political ideas and public policy on the left of centre in the United Kingdom. By analysing the key challenges facing the UK and the rest of the industrialised world in a changing society and global economy, the society aims to explore the political ideas and the policy reforms which will define progressive politics.

Click here to go to the Fabian Society’s website.