CLIMATE CHANGE

We need to invest in community action to deliver on environmental promises

Graham Duxbury says Michael Gove’s recent speech on the Environment Bill missed out the education, infrastructure and peer pressure that’s needed to make change happen.

Despite the fairly obvious political positioning involved, the recent speech by Environment Secretary Michael Gove offered a compelling and wide-ranging survey of all the things being done and all the things that might be done by government to arrest a decline in nature and get to grips with climate change.  The ‘might' is important as following through on the commitments made in an aptly sweltering greenhouse in Kew Gardens will depend on new Prime Minister Boris Johnson picking up the baton and making the Environment Bill the centre-piece of the next Queen's Speech.

If we don our optimism goggles and accept Gove's assurance that Boris Johnson is a dyed-in-the-wool deep green Tory, then the next few months will see an avalanche of legislation, regulation and initiatives on air pollution, water quality, species loss, land management, packaging and tree planting.  All of it, were it to happen, is good stuff - driven by an increasingly alarming set of statistics about how nature-depleted the UK has become and how urgent the need for action if we're going to limit damaging climate impacts.

Popular articles by Graham Duxbury

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING

Get unlimited access to The MJ with a subscription, plus a weekly copy of The MJ magazine sent directly to you door and inbox.

Subscribe

Full website content includes additional, exclusive commentary and analysis on the issues affecting local government.

Login

Already a subscriber?