My blog - September 2007

We need a joined-up campaign on climate change

We’re all being urged to ‘do our bit’ to combat climate change. Which is quite right. We should all turn appliances off standby, cycle to work, lag the loft - do 'our bit'. But unfortunately 'our bit' isn’t enough. A few people in a progressive communities living green lifestyles isn't going to make a lot of difference when China is building at least one coal-burning power station every week and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are being driven up relentlessly by economic and demographic growth.

Having spent five years writing about climate change, and having also seen how the media and politics work, I think something is missing. We don't yet have a really powerful public campaign for change.

The logic is this. Global warming will be tackled by reducing GHG emissions. That means using renewable and alternative energy, instead of fossil fuels, and using energy more efficiently. Businesses can deliver these technologies – but only if they are made profitable by the right policies. Politicians can create those policies - but they're concerned about the economic and political costs.

So what will break the logjam? Not businesses - who are doers rather than campaigners. Not politicians by themselves - unless there is a sudden outbreak of huge political courage. It’s public opinion that will count. Politicians will act if it becomes clear that change is what a vast number of people want. And currently the public voice is relatively quiet. The Live Earth concerts achieved something. But the downside of such events is that they create a spike in public concern rather than a steady build-up.

What is needed is a huge, global campaign with a massive, growing global petition at its heart.  Make Poverty History may now itself be history – but it was the right idea.  It reached millions. It enabled people to sign up to something specific and it kept up its profile.

By contrast, campaigning on climate change amounts to a kaleidoscope of different initiatives by different organisations - I've signed at least five online petitions - none of which had more than one million signatures apiece.

Now is the time to bring these strands together in a co-ordinated global campaign. The current talks being run by the United Nations are moving towards a successor to the Kyoto Treaty. Kyoto was the right model but its targets were too modest, its coverage too limited, and its enforcement too weak.

The next treaty will be make or break. It has to cover the critical period when GHG emissions need to peak. It has to lead to policies that stop the runaway growth in coal fired power stations, halt and reverse deforestation, increase in energy efficiency and boost renewable and alternative energy.

The campaign therefore has to articulate the full breadth and depth of public concern over the planet. It needs to embrace not only concerned westerners but people threatened by floods in Bangladesh, drought in Africa, water shortages in the Himalayas and melting ice in the Arctic.

It should mobilise the power of businesses that want to prove their green credentials – imagine a petition being offered at supermarket checkouts – and the reach of voluntary organisations with mass memberships. It should also embrace the 500 US cities whose mayors have committed them to meet the Kyoto targets through the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and the 200 British local authorities that have signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change. 

If the public concern that already exists can be aggregated and articulated in a single campaign then it will provide a unifying force and a steady drumbeat of publicity as the time for decision approaches. Instead of oscillating, the momentum for change would steadily grow. If the world fails to avert catastrophe it will not only be because world leaders failed to make the necessary choices but also because the calls for change were too confused and the campaign for action too divided. It’s not too late to pull this together, but it soon will be.