Monday, 8 August 2022

'Climate' For Change?

A Buckinghamshire councillor, Ed Gemmell, is leader of the new 'Climate Party'. The 'Climate Party' is a Centre-Right organisation, where 'climate conscious conservatives' will feel 'at home'. Will this party, however, really improve the UK's chances of reaching carbon zero early? (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/07/my-climate-party-ed-gemell-centre-right). The 'Climate Party' intends taking on 110 current Conservative UK Members of Parliament (MPs), who have not demonstrated enthusiasm for countering climate change. A main policy plank for this organisation, is achieving carbon zero by 2030, rather than 2050. As they say, this is more likely to prevent a full-blown climate catastrophe. The 'Climate Party', however, also says it wants business 'to thrive'. The current 'Green Party' doesn't have this focus. It really depends, however, what kind of business, one is talking about. Businesses supporting effective home insulation and generation of 'green energies' etc are beneficial to the cause. Thriving petrochemical companies, travel firms and airlines, effectively counter attempts resist climate change. Will the 'Climate Party' even avoid taking sponsorship from the latter? If not, it will provide a good 'greenwashing' opportunity for them. Given the UK's weird and wonderful voting system, it's unclear how helpful/unhelpful this new party would be to the UK's drive to reach carbon zero. In the UK, new parties tend to simply fragment the vote, making it difficult to reach concensus. Have they a policy on proportional representation?

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