Good news on the environment watch beat. It comes from an unlikely source but is welcome all the more for it. The new head of the UK government’s official green watchdog is a really good puppy.
Not only our friend Will, has criticised the environment minister Miliband’s moves to licence and build new coal-fired power stations in Britain; but Will seriously condemned the planned expansion of Heathrow airport. And he has his head screwed right in all the major issues facing the energy sector, the built environment and the emissions on the atmosphere.
He even has political talents. His first interview, since taking office, shows Will Day, the New chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), will be a friend of the environment and it’s people. Every DAY of the week. A friend of the activists and the foot soldiers in this brutish, nasty but necessary fight.
A fight for life. Literally. We think he gets it.
He even said that the construction of new coal stations, such as the planned Eon Kingsnorth facility in Kent, are daft moves and hell for the environment. He even stated the obvious: That these new coal licences, would provide a “lightning rod” for international protest, and would be counterproductive on the energy future. he dismissed coal as backwards.
Truly a man who understands and isn’t afraid of controversy.
He dismissed industry and ministerial claims that new power stations such as Kingsnorth could be operated with limited impact on the environment by trapping and storing the carbon emissions underground.
He was adamant: “Never use the words ’clean coal’ be cautioned”
He said :
“I do not believe clean coal exists.” ‘
‘It is not right to build a third runway at Heathrow.”
”Flights must be made more expensive to discourage people from flying to foreign holidays”.
”Politicians must make unpopular decisions to tackle global warming”
Naturally, Will Day managed expectations by saying, that his views were personal and not those of the SDC.
But still his uncompromising tone, reassures the green movement and the environmental campaigners, that there is a lone voice of dissent in the wilderness of this erstwhile government.
Will Day, comes from the difficult world of international relief and millennium development for the third world. He led the group, Care International. Not only, was he the chief there, but he was close to the ground. He got his hands dirty and understood what it takes to make a difference in people’s lives. Real people who have no advocates except the carers. Very much like the environment.
No advocates except the carers….
And now this day, and in this new job, Will DAY, must seem like a lone voice harping in deaf ears, kinda job. Coming from a palce where you can see the impact of your actions directly affecting people, to a cosy appointed SDC plush chair,… that is a tough transition to take. But he is a fighter.
As an example: On new coal power stations, Will said:
“Science is unequivocal about the impact of carbon on our environment. Every time scientists go back to measure ice and water levels, it gets worse.
”We should not be adding to that problem. And when someone says, “oh no, it will be carbon capture and storage ready”, well show me where it’s working, seriously working. Show me how it’s going to be implemented on existing stock, let alone new stock.”
His panache in stocking the government fears is admirable. He said: “There is no such thing as a free lunch and we’re not going to get a free lunch from coal. So my view would be if the government wants to provide a lightning rod for public disagreement or dissent around coal, then start building a new coal-fired power station, and the orang-utan costumes will be dusted off from around the planet and people will come and say this is wrong. And two wrongs don’t make a right. People say “oh there is one a week opening in China”. And? I don’t think that’s a good enough reason.”
Day said he disagreed with Ed Miliband, climate and energy secretary, on whether mass air travel could be preserved in a low-carbon world. Environment minister, Miliband said last month: “Where I disagree with other people on aviation is if you did 80% cuts across the board, as some people have called for on aviation, you would go back to 1974 levels of flying. I don’t want to have a situation where only rich people can afford to fly.”
Day said: “Politicians are there to make the hard decisions. And there are some really hard decisions coming up. And they’re hard because they’re not the kind of decisions that individuals particularly want to have taken. How many short- to medium-haul flight holidays does anyone really need to have a year? Ed Miliband interestingly said something like ‘don’t worry your holiday flights are safe with me’. But we know that we need to be encouraging and supporting, through a combination of stick and carrot, some change to behaviours.”
He added: “Part of the difficult decision is going to be a rebalancing of what things cost. If we say we must pay the true price of the impact of carbon on the environment. The hard decision is do you price the impact of an aeroplane flying through the air properly, really properly, and not a kind of £1.20 carbon offset. The objective is to reduce the amount of carbon put into the upper atmosphere by planes by pricing it out.”
He said: Flights will continue to be cheap enough, but there will be far fewer of them, and they will be properly priced. And people will be able to make decisions based on their decision to afford. They’re not being told they cannot go on holiday, they are being told this is what it costs.”
We all know that aviation emission far too high in the upper atmosphere have a compound effect far too dear for climate change. Nasa scientists place the earth warming effect of aviation emissions at more than a thousand times their comparable amounts at ground level. And maybe far more as their effect hasn’t been studied properly.
Not bad for a government appointee.
There is hope after all every ”day” even from this bumbling government.
PS: His predecessor chairman of SDC, Jonathan Porritt, who was a regular and vocal critic of government efforts on the environment, held the post well. To what end? And all his work came to naught….
How is Will going to avoid this same Kasandra’s voice fate?
Maybe he has the stuff of leaders and can use the pulpit to good use… He is also a quick study… But maybe he can take advise and follow the lesson of other change makers who always knew that the pen is mightier than the sword and begin fast and furious advocacy on behalf of the environment.
The Environmental Parliament will place all of it’s resources and it’s Environmental Science Media Center scientists at his disposal to make that advocacy easier. But it’s still his job to get the science heard.
He has got the pulpit and it is a preacher’s nightmare of one. We wish him Good Luck.
