Climate change is too big a problem to be left to the environmentalists

The environmental movement does not have sufficient public support to secure action on the scale needed – charities, churches, schools, the health sector, unions can all play their part

Stephen Hale
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 April 2009 15.29 BST

Individual actions matter. But only governments can save us from catastrophic climate change. There is far more that our political leaders could and should do, right now, to accelerate investment in low-carbon energy, housing and transport infrastructure and help individuals to do more to tackle climate change. Our leaders have considerably more power than they choose to acknowledge. But it's abundantly clear that they will not act at the necessary scale and speed without far greater public pressure. There are deep structural reasons why governments have not delivered on climate change. It's time to face up to them, and to develop new strategies that overcome these obstacles.
These obstacles start with the paradox of climate change itself: the devastating effects of our emissions today will be experienced by others in the future and in other parts of the world, and reduce the incentive for our politicians to act. Then there is the impact of short-term electoral cycles, limited national power in the face of global markets and the lack of effective institutions to agree a global response. Finally, there's a combination of vested interests and deep ideological hostility that limits regulation and other government actions that are urgently needed. It's a recipe for political inertia.
So we need to bring about a dramatic shift in the politics of climate change. That won't come from within the political establishment, or from the private sector. As history tells us, it will only come through pressure from a deeply committed and wide ranging social movement demanding action.
This movement will not be primarily "environmental". The modern environmental movement has played a vital role in making climate change an issue of public and political concern, and achieved remarkable shifts on a host of issues. But climate change threatens all our futures, not just those of environmentalists.
The environmental movement does not yet command sufficient public support to secure action on the scale needed, an argument put provocatively by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger in Death of Environmentalism. In their new book, Breakthrough, they argue for a massive surge in public spending on climate change that will create new jobs and opportunities. I support many of their policy proposals. But they neglect the need to build a broad-based movement, which will drive demand for these policies.
We need a new approach that triggers mobilisation on this scale. It won't happen purely through individual action, as some claim. It will be the result of actions by organisations across the third sector, which enable people to take meaningful action together rather than isolated contributions. The potential characteristics of this movement are sketched out in the pamphlet I published in November — Climate change: why we are failing and how we will succeed.
The new movement for action is already emerging. It unites a wide range of groups, who recognise that climate change is the definitive social and economic issue of our time. Organisations concerned with issues from international development and security to health and housing are speaking out on climate change, because they see the potential impact on their concerns and the opportunities for them if we can get this right. Important new initiatives are underway to foster this understanding in other sectors.
Charities, churches, schools, the health sector, unions and other groups can all provide opportunities for action, as they do on so many other issues. They can establish climate change in the public mind as an issue of poverty, housing, health, security and well-being as well as the environment; they can deepen commitment and action at community, local and regional level; they can create a movement of people living low-carbon lifestyles and setting an example to others; and mobilise across borders.
A new task force, announced last week, will help to identify how the third sector can play a far greater role in tackling climate change and environmental issues. The Task Force on the Third sector, climate change and the environment, was announced by Defra, the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and the Office of the Third Sector. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has more information on the task force, and how to apply.
We need new approaches now more than ever. The growing momentum of recent years halted in 2008. Climate change slipped down the political agenda, pushed back above all by the chaos in the global economy. Politicians are increasingly preoccupied with improving public confidence and economic performance in the short-term, as they feel the squeeze of the credit crisis, rising resource prices, and the economic downturn. But there will be no long-term route out of recession unless we build a low-carbon economy.
Like governments, the third sector often struggles to work effectively across organisational boundaries. But on current trends climate change will roll back the progress that has been made on poverty, housing, health, security and many other issues. It is profoundly in the interests of those concerned with these issues to make their particular contributions to the struggle against climate change. We all have a huge vested interest in this struggle. Action on climate change is too important to leave to environmentalists.
Stephen Hale is director of Green Alliance, an independent organisation working to make environmental solutions a priority in British politics