If I were Mr Cameron or Mr Clegg, I'd look again at the ambition to be the "greenest government ever" and think that there was a point to prove in the second half of my term in office.
I'd be worried by the schism that has emerged within the coalition over climate change policy and would see the Energy Bill as an opportunity to set the record straight. Establishing a target to decarbonise electricity supply by 2030 and including emissions from aviation and shipping in carbon budgets would help provide the clear message that we need and will plan for an energy revolution in harmony with the natural environment.
I'd be proud of my intention to be the first generation to pass on the natural environment in a better state to the next but I'd acknowledge that the government has not done enough to make this happen. The Natural Environment White Paper has some great commitments and some tangible progress has been made: the establishment of the Natural Capital Committee and 12 Nature Improvement Areas are beginning to restore wildlife at a landscape-scale. But there is still a yawning gap between the desired outcomes (for species, sites and habitats) and available tools and resources.
I'd do more to acknowledge that it pays to invest in nature and that pursuit of short-term economic growth must not come at the expense of the environment. I will have learnt from the public response to debates about planning reform, the British Antarctic Survey and forestry.
And I'd set out my priorities for the second half of my term by saying that I would:
- work with the other 26 Member States to secure a EU Budget deal that delivered more public benefits for the trillion euros of European tax-payers money. In particular, I'd work tirelessly to reform the Common Agriculture Policy so that more resources were available to support wildlife-friendly farming
- use the current triennial review of the statutory agencies to ensure that there was a strong body whose primary purpose was to think, speak and act for nature
- think again about how many marine conservation zones should be designated
- use to the findings of the Law Commission review of wildlife management to provide fresh impetus to tackle wildlife crime and support efforts to save our most threatened species such as hen harrier
I'd want to go to the polls in 2015 confident that I had done everything possible to save nature.
What would you do if you were the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister and were about to start the second half of your term in office?
It would be great to hear your views.
Nightjar - extremely well put! I don't think we have long to wait now for the government response to the report by the Independent Panel on Forestry...
Quite simple, Martin, and a professional economist on BBC news last night summed it up nicely: this Government has been consistent in its cutting, very patchy in putting in place measures to support growth. She pointed out that Barack Obama's more measured approach (he at least appears to have learnt the lessons Keynes and Roosvelt taught us in the 1930s) has worked better - as have other Government's who have learnt the very basic lesson that Government's need to behave counter-cyclically and invest when the private sector is holding back.
Some of us have a rather longer experience of recession than the country at large and this Government: in forestry recession struck in 1996 when timber prices halved over 3 years. Part of the Forestry Commission's sucess goes back to how it responded: simply cutting would have left nothing - pretty much where the country is headed at the moment - so alongside extreme economy, the FC developed its business opportunities - providing better services to visitors with more income the result, pulling in huge amounts of investment for wildlife through 3rd party funding - especially EU LIFE which Martin has rightly praised in this blog - and developing a completely new approach to how we manage the land around our towns and cities. And, ironically, privatising itself in the process - the FC I joined in 1976 did at least 80& of its own work. Today, 80% of the work on FC land is carried out by private businesses - and the multiplier to local business off FC land is huge but largely unmeasured (but RSPB has done some excellent work showing the economic benefits of wildlife tourism).
Overall, the approach FC took has saved maybe £100m since 1996 at the same time as growing business and jobs and greening the economy - achieving international recognition through Forestry Stewardship Council certification and developing a biomass policy for England which RSPB can support ! We'll be able to see whether Defra/the Coalition have absorbed any of this when the Government responds to the report of the Independent Panel on Forestry, which Mike Clarke was a member of, later this month.
I think you have again put your finger on most of the very relevant issues which this Government needs to address to be the "greenest government ever". However I have this feeling that Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg will take no action on almost all of them. I am afraid to say that to me the "tea leaves" indicate that by the next general election they will have done almost nothing positive. They do not seem to have any enthusiasm in the right direction. I hope I am wrong on this assessment and I know the RSPB is doing its utmost to try to push this Government into taking positive action for which all these issues cry out.
redkite