End of the party

The Guardian, Tuesday December 2 2008

In his new book on climate change, Hot, Flat and Crowded, the American journalist Thomas Friedman demolishes the notion that we are in the middle of a green revolution. When, he asks, did you ever see a revolution in which no one got hurt? During the IT revolution, companies went bust. By comparison, the fight to mitigate climate change is a consumerist carnival. Some quickfire Googling will deliver up 10 easy tips for going green, 20 simple steps to save the planet while saving money - and even measures to "green up your sex life", complete with vegan condoms. "This isn't a revolution," Mr Friedman rightly notes. "It's a party."
Which makes Adair Turner either a party-pooper or an even more unlikely insurgent. Yesterday, as chair of the government's committee on climate change, he delivered the most comprehensive plans yet for how Britain can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Over 467 pages, the report details the industries that are to cut their carbon emissions, by how much, and lays out three carbon budgets to run until 2022, which will be laid alongside the Treasury's normal red books. For the first time in any developed country, the UK has ambitious, detailed targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. And they come from an independent body, whose recommendations this government and its successors will have to take on board. This is a brave, bold step and Gordon Brown is to be congratulated for taking it.
Such changes may not be felt for a while, but they are huge. The report sets the UK a target of cutting greenhouse gases by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, and recommends fairly stiff interim caps for 2020. All this comes at a price, as Lord Turner admits. Energy costs will have to rise, and without government help 1.7 million people will be pushed into fuel poverty.
Campaigners point out that the report could have gone further, and they are right. Aviation is included in the carbon budgets, but without any national targets. As Lord Turner admitted yesterday, that could mean other sectors have to work to ever-tighter caps, while aviation's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is allowed to balloon.
With a bit of luck, more work will be done in establishing a new regime for aviation. But yesterday was worth celebrating for the aspirations it set out and the process put in place to meet them. One could go further: yesterday was the day when the government finally sized up the precise challenge it faces in mitigating climate change - and began planning how to meet it. To use Mr Friedman's terms of reference, mitigating climate change may not yet be in its revolutionary phase, but it is no longer a party.