We are on the threshold of an extraordinary decade. Before now the effects of climate and environmental breakdown were mapped on to the future, but today we can see them all around us.
Across England and Wales, towns and villages are under floodwater; fires have raged from Australia to the Amazon; and globally we’re in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, in which we stand to lose up to a million species. According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, tackling this crisis will require “far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” for which “the next few years are probably the most important in our history”.
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We have the capacity, imagination and resources to radically, democratically and fairly decarbonise our economy and repair the natural world. Yet under the Tories the pace of carbon reduction is slowing down. Emissions fell by only 2.1% in 2018, less than half the average of the preceding five years. The government’s own Committee on Climate Change sounded the alarm last summer, warning that: “UK action to curb greenhouse gas emissions is lagging far behind what is needed, even to meet previous, less stringent, emissions targets.” We must urgently change course.
We need a green new deal hardwired into every level of government, from Whitehall departments to local councils. For communities across the country, such a deal would mean good jobs in new green industries, more power and ownership over local decisions, cleaner air and warmer, more secure homes.
But a domestic programme to tackle the climate crisis will not be enough. We know that climate change is an unavoidably international problem – there is no way our islands alone can escape it. Our efforts at home must be matched by those abroad – we must internationalise the green new deal.
To start with, we should be clear-eyed about the UK’s historic contribution to this problem and our present capability to adapt to it, recognising that the poorest bear the least responsibility and the heaviest burden of climate breakdown. We also need to recognise that as we leave the EU, the climate crisis requires a new approach to international trade, finance and development.
The government must not use trade negotiations to bargain away our environmental protections. Instead we should encourage other countries to raise their ambitions for decarbonisation. As a centre of global finance, we should regulate private investment to make sure that money that comes through the UK isn’t contributing to environmental breakdown. And rather than funding fossil fuel projects abroad, we should use our development budget and technical expertise to help other countries skip our bad habits and grow their own low-carbon economies on renewables instead – while also providing support to climate refugees.
But as well as all this, internationalising the green new deal requires us to build a net-zero coalition of countries, regions, cities and businesses across the world. November offers the UK a unique opportunity to lead that coalition as host of the UN climate change conference in Glasgow. Cop26 is the moment for countries to reinforce their contributions to the fight against climate change – to match warm words with concrete commitments.
Labour lost the election, but we are still a movement that can fight for change and a better future. That’s why this weekend I’ll be bringing together environmentalists, trade unionists, policy experts and local government representatives to begin to develop plans for that net-zero coalition, both at home and abroad. We cannot wait until 2024 to tackle the climate crisis. The Labour movement must lead the charge for an international response at Cop26 and beyond.
Another future is possible and together we can build it.
• Keir Starmer is Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras and a Labour leadership candidate
