Gordon Brown - pink shirts but where are the green credentials?

I attended the "Sustainable Energy Policy for the UK" conference at Congress House this week. Trade and Industry Sec. of State Alan Johnson almost managed to get through his speech without mentioning the nuclear option but, as you would expect given the Energy Review is still open, he didn't really say anything new.

Dieter Helm spoke of the need for Government to set a framework for energy markets to work effectively in terms of improving the energy supply infrastructure and in terms of reducing carbon emissions. He said a lot more than this but I won't expand on this here. Sir David King, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, outlined the scientific evidence for global warming and offered dire predictions for the planet's future but mixed this with a degree of optimism at what might be possible through technological advances and international politicial agreement.

Attending the conference made me think about the future direction that Labour might take on issues such as the environment and climate change. While some may question the pace of progress under Labour in terms of the UK's own efforts to tackle climate change, Tony Blair has shown a great deal of commitment in raising the issue of climate change on a national and international level (it was one of the two main priorities of the UK's G8 presidency last year). This is in stark contrast to the record of the Chancellor who rarely (I would venture it is never but it is said that you should never say never) spoken with any enthusiasm on issues concerning the environment.

Okay, Gordon Brown is Chancellor and green issues might (wrongly) be thought of as being out of bounds for the man holding the purse strings. But given that Brown, in moves to prove he can talk about more than pounds, shillings and prudence, has been coming out with his thoughts on issues of Britishness and constitutional reform there shouldn't be any excuse for him not now to talk about the environment.

Of course, the excuse could be that he is not actually that interested in climate change. His commitment to world poverty issues is genuine and long-held but climate change probably doesn't register with Brown in the same way and for Brown these considerations may conflict with his belief in enterprise. But Brown needs to be interested in environmental issues and possibly not 'just' for the sake of the planet. David Cameron's opportunistic conversion to all things green is political shorthand for 'we've changed, we're now young and fresh and interested in the same single issue politics as you are...'.

Polls might be unreliable but a recent Guardian/ICM poll showed that Cameron was more convincing to the public on green issues than both Blair and Brown (who lagged even further behind in the poll). This poll might not tell us much but for me it reinforces the idea that Gordon Brown and Labour should come out all guns blazin' on the environment. There are environmental achievements under Labour that we can be proud of and we should say so while putting down a marker for further action too. This would call Cameron's bluff, provide an opportunity to show Brown is in tune with climate change issues, and hopefully lead to some bold Government action to help the UK meets its own carbon emissions commitments in 2020.