All Is Fair In Love And Activism - by Les May

 I’m member of the Community Branch of a Trades Union. A couple of week ago the regular newsletter dropped through my door. I found that I was being urged to attend a ‘demo’ on the subject of ‘Climate Change’ in Manchester. Inside was a summary of some comments made about the forthcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow. One speaker had dismissed it as likely to be a ‘talking shop’. Just how fair are dismissive assessments like this?

In 1992 climate researcher William James Burroughs wrote; ‘… without a better understanding of natural variability of the climate, it will be much more difficult to reach early conclusions on whether man-made pollution is having a significant impact. Tackling the Greenhouse Effect involves massive adjustments in the nature of modern society. There is a natural inclination to avoid making what will be expensive and unpopular changes until the evidence of global warming is beyond doubt. But by then it may be too late.’

In his 2004 book Global Warming: the complete briefing, John Houghten, who co-chaired the Scientific Assessment Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote;

‘’Predictions of the future climate are surrounded with considerable un-certainty that arises from our imperfect knowledge both of the science of climate change and of the future scale of the human activities that are its cause. Politicians and others making decisions are therefore faced with the need to weigh all aspects of uncertainty against the desirability and the cost of the various actions that can be taken in response to the threat of climate change. Some mitigating action can be taken easily at relatively little cost (or even at a net saving of cost), for in-stance the development of programmes to conserve and save energy, and many schemes for reducing deforestation and encouraging the planting of trees.’

It is against the background of cautious words like these, coming from people I think we can assume know rather more about climate change and global warming than the speaker referred to in the first paragraph, that the actions or inactions of successive governments should be judged. Activists may make whatever claims take their fancy; climate scientists do no have that luxury.

John Houghten went on to say: Other actions such as a large shift to energy sources that are free from significant carbon dioxide emissions (for example, renewable sources – biomass, hydro, wind, or solar energy) both in the developed and the developing countries of the world will take some time.’

So how does the UK rate with regard to promoting renewable resources?

Between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2021 the installed capacity rose from 8,690MW to 48,140 MW. That’s 560% more in 2021 than we had in 2010.