Western Daily Press (Saturday)
We’re one world, we can make a difference
It would be a mistake to entrust today’s politicians with solving climate-change crisis,
WHAT actually happened at the recent climate change conference COP 27? There was a major breakthrough on loss and damage funding for the developing countries which are most vulnerable from the effects of climate change. This was significant progress, but the rest of the package was less so. The number of oil delegations at the conference was most alarming. There was agreement to phase down the use of coal, but emissions from gas and oil were ignored. Agreements from Paris and Glasgow COPs were renewed but not strengthened. To reach net zero emissions by 2050 it will need expenditure of about four trillion US dollars on renewable energy annually.
Can climate change be entrusted to politicians who, by the nature of the job, will only be influential for a minuscule amount of time? In a few short years they can vary from climate deniers like presidents Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in America, to presidents offering more environmental protection like presidents Biden and Lula of Brazil. However, when these men are in office they can still make an enormous amount of difference. For example, the recently deposed Bolsonaro was in favour of clearing forest for farmland, and opening up the Amazon to development.
The major change for the world is to stop using fossil fuels and President Putin has been kind enough to point this out. Green energy is now cheaper and should be a priority for all governments with food security the second priority. I can’t help noticing that in all the confusion caused by Liz Truss’s environmental policy review, there is little meat for conscientious dairy farmers. If they have kept all their ancient hedges and ponds, planted trees and conserved the soil, sequestering carbon, they won’t be eligible for any carbon off-setting, which is next big thing, as developers have to commit to at least 10% offsets.
This means that the environment has to be improved to qualify for a payment. If an arable farm has given up livestock and previously removed all hedges, trees and ponds, ploughed every year up to the field boundary, releasing all the stored carbon, using many pesticides over the years, industry will pay generously for him to improve the situation on his farm. This offsetting works can help the environment, as long as it is not just green washing, as hedges tend to be totally removed by builders and take many years to recreate.
For the farmers, generally dairy, beef and sheep farmers who have looked after the environment and conserved the organic matter in their soil, carbon offsets seem to be a no-go area, as there’s nothing left to improve. It’s these kinds of farmers who need to be rewarded by the grant system, otherwise they will be forced out of business, and their farms sold to a developer, with a detrimental effect on the environment. There will be many such farms in the West Country. It’s time to write to MPs to point this out, as policy is under review.
Now that we are suffering the effects of Brexit, a referendum taken today would produce a very different result. Brexit has led to insecurity – we have lost our major trading block and we don’t have wonderful trade deals across the world to offset this loss – only one with Australia, a county dependent on its coal industry and where animal welfare is suspect and it’s also on the other side of the world. Even the minister influential in brokering the deal, George Eustice, is now saying it’s a bad deal for Britain and too much was given away, when Liz Truss set an unnecessary deadline for completion. Remember her? it only took her two weeks to destroy our economy. Again, Truss was in a rush.
I was at a political meeting recently, with questions requested after the speaker’s speech. My question was, why wasn’t climate change even mentioned during the talk, and what was the party’s policy compared to the Labour party? The speaker poohpoohed the need to do anything much, as he said Britain only contributed 1% to global warming compared with China’s 13%. The most horrific thing about this meeting was that the speaker was applauded for his reply.
We are all in one world. Other countries doing less is not an excuse for inaction. At the end of the day, small things matter too. When I started writing for the Western Daily Press, one of my first articles was about peat. I noticed that most of the compost in the garden centres included peat. Two years later, the situation is little changed, peat-free compost is very much in the minority if it is there at all. 80% of the peat used in the UK is in compost. Peat bogs take many thousands of years to form, and their preservation is vital in the fight against climate change. Gardeners appreciate the natural world, and peat-free compost now works very well. If every gardener demanded, and only bought, peat-free compost, that would make an enormous difference and send a clear signal to the Government and industry. If one person can make a difference, what about a whole country? As John Donne so memorably wrote over 400 years ago:
No man is an island
Entire of itself
Each is a piece of the continent A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea Europe is the less.
Each man’s death diminishes me. For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
The sentiments are exactly those of David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg! We must all take responsibility for the state of our planet.