Lib Dems need to shout a louder green message

Polly Toynbee is quite right to say that the Lib Dems “need to shout a louder green message... to recapture the green vote” (The Guardian 19 Sep 2009). That’s partly the fault of Nick Clegg, who hasn’t done enough to lead from the front on the single biggest issue facing the human race. It wasn’t one of his priorities when he became leader and it isn’t enough of a priority now. I'm all for savage cuts, Nick - but savage cuts in carbon emissions not public spending!

It’s also because the Lib Dems have struggled to find an environmental spokesman to put the message across loudly enough. The current incumbent, Simon Hughes, is a heavyweight politician who is genuinely green, but he needs to be heard more often. By contrast the leader of the Greens, Caroline Lucas, is everywhere all the time belying the argument that small parties can’t get on the media.

It’s also partly about the two main parties picking up bits and pieces of the green agenda. Labour politicians love setting long-term targets they will not be in power to meet. Conservative environmental policy is a series of sound-bites which don’t quite join up and which the party faithful don’t believe.

If the Lib Dems don’t rediscover their touch on environmental issues, then they will lose votes and members to an increasingly coherent Green Party. In many ways that would be a disaster because, although I have a lot of respect for the Greens and for Caroline Lucas, as a society we simply don’t have time to wait for the Greens to become a mainstream party. As Polly Toynbee points out the Lib Dems control many of Britain’s towns and cities. They can make a difference on this agenda right now.

The good news is that many Lib Dem councils are doing just that. I’ve spent the last three years talking to local authorities up and down the country about climate change. It’s most often Lib Dem councils that are the leaders on this agenda – doing what they see as right for their community and for the planet rather than what the government tells them to do.

Richmond introduced emissions based parking. Camden were the first to run municipal vehicles on food waste. Milton Keynes and Eastleigh brought in planning rules requiring developers to offset any carbon into a local fund to be spent on energy efficiency measures. Sheffield and Camden give away free cavity and roof insulation. Islington are believed to have more green roofs and more car club spaces than any other local authority.

The trouble is that there’s a disconnect between what Lib Dem councils are doing on the ground and the deafening silence from the party leadership. Vince Cable is the UK’s most trusted politician and has performed wonders in terms of explaining the sub-prime crisis, the UK debt overhang and the moral bankruptcy of the City of London. But he rarely talks about climate change or the inevitable end of cheap fossil fuels or the need to measure human progress based on how happy we are rather than on GDP.

None of the Lib Dem party leadership talks loudly enough on these issues. That needs to change – both for the sake of the Lib Dems as a party and for human society as a whole.