Editorial Comment:
Most people want to do their bit to help the environment. The problem is that the goal posts keep shifting (wood-burning stoves and diesel cars are encouraged one minute, discouraged the next) and trust is undermined by false promises. A lot of what we recycle, it turns out, has been shipped off to poorer countries and dumped in landfill – and, as we reveal today, consumers are being misled by a Wild West market in carbon offsetting. One can compensate for polluting the planet by ticking a box to protect a forest, but there is no guarantee that it will actually happen. Given the money and good intentions being poured into this industry, it is a crushing disappointment.
All of this erodes the credibility of the green agenda, which is a great shame as much of it is admirable and the kind of practical conservation that many people already do as a matter of instinct. But every time a government sets an unreasonable target that we all know cannot be met, it reduces the cause to virtue-signalling by rich countries and rich individuals. There is a risk that environmentalism becomes a luxury product (Sir Elton John famously offset the air miles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they visited him in France), while it becomes harder for citizens on modest incomes to heat their houses, take a holiday or do anything involving a car. The more radical end of the green movement, of course, is just self-indulgent and juvenile. This week, Extinction Rebellion protested environmental destruction by tearing up the lawn at Trinity College, Cambridge. For most of us, the whole point of conservation is to conserve that which is beautiful. Extinction Rebellion, however, wants to “save the planet” by pulling up tradition and capitalism from their very roots.
From this mix of confused aims and bad policy, the Conservatives have to create a coherent, practical agenda that wins hearts and minds through reason, not compulsion. They have already committed themselves to ambitious targets at home and must now show us how these will actually be paid for – and how the developing world, where emissions far outstrip our own, can be persuaded to join in. As for offsetting, the solution is a properly regulated market. Building rational and transparent institutions that help us to make good choices is a hallmark of the way of life that most of us wish to preserve.