On Sunday afternoon, the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said that “going green was not just a moral imperative, it was an economic imperative.”
Quite right!
And this chimes with the National Ecosystems Assessment which concluded that if we ignore the environment we risk damaging the long term health of our economy.
And it is also consistent with findings in the latest RSPB report Natural Foundations: Conservation and Local Employment which concluded that conservation and nature tourism can make a significant contribution to local economies.
For example, the RSPB’s 200 reserves now attract two million visits a year. They help bring £66million into their local communities, supporting 1,872 local jobs – an 87 per cent increase since 2002.
This is small example of a wider picture - the environmental economy is growing. There are now something like 3.5 million jobs across Europe linked to low carbon infrastructure and that number is growing.
So, it is disappointing that there are mixed messages coming from Conservative ministers over the environment. In his speech to the Conservative Party Conference yesterday, the Chancellor, George Osborne seemed to shrug off the UK’s green responsibilities.
He said,
“Now we know that a decade of environmental laws and regulations are piling costs on the energy bills of households and companies.
Yes, climate change is a man made disaster.
Yes, we need international agreement to stop it.
Yes, we must have investment in greener energy. And that’s why I gave the go ahead to the world’s first Green Investment Bank.
But Britain makes up less than 2% of the world’s carbon emissions to China and America’s 40%.
We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.
So let’s at the very least resolve that we’re going to cut our carbon emissions no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe.”
That’s what I’ve insisted on in the recent carbon budget”.
Mr Osborne and Mrs Spelman do not seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
There is a much quoted metaphor that sustainable development is a three-legged stool made up of environment, social and economic interests.
As the debate over the planning reforms demonstrates, more often than not, the economic leg is just a little bit longer.
More than ever we need a joined up government which recognises that the needs of people and the economy must be balanced by the needs of the environment.
So come on, Mr Osborne, go and have a chat with Mrs Spelman. She'll put you right.