Blogs and Briefings
Do Blue and Yellow Make Green?
Connect Communication’s, Senior Policy Consultant, Andrew Smith, takes stock of the Coalition Government's commitment to being the “Greenest Government ever”
February 2011 - Connect Intelligence Briefing
When he became Leader of the Conservative Party, the environment was at the core of David Cameron’s efforts to appeal to new voters. Whilst the Liberal Democrats have undoubtedly strengthened the Coalition’s commitment to environmental issues, the economic downturn has detracted attention from the green agenda.
Despite the fact that the environment has fallen down the agenda as a political priority, it is still likely that the Government’s record on the environment will be an important battleground at the next election, given the importance of former Liberal Democrat votes to the outcome.
This fight for the affections of these centrist voters means that the environment is a policy area where opposition parties can have huge amounts of policy influence. It could therefore be that the outcome of the Labour Party’s current review of policy will have as much influence on the direction of policy as the debates between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats within the Coalition.
Defining Green Cameroon Conservatism?
One of the defining images of the early years of Cameron's leadership was of him hugging a husky on a visit to the Scott-Turner glacier in Norway. It symbolised the changes that Cameron wanted to put in place and despite scepticism about his use of a private jet to see evidence of global warming, the image was important in illustrating the change David Cameron wanted to see within his Party.
Cameron’s Conservative Party saw the environment as a key issue to attract the centrist voters they had lost, and a central element of the Party’s ‘decontamination’ strategy. This strategy famously saw Cameron trying to install a wind turbine on his house, members of the Shadow Cabinet persuaded to publicly change their home energy suppliers to renewable sources, and a commitment to a ‘carbon neutral’ Party Conference.
Behind the publicity stunts, the Conservative Party in opposition did demonstrate a political commitment to strengthening the UK’s efforts to tackle climate change. Conservative pressure was important in pushing the then Labour Government to strengthen the commitment in the Climate Change Act 2008 to an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050, and delivering a series of targets to achieve this, as well as a system of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy generation.
However, polls have shown that concern about the environment has fallen significantly since the beginning of economic downturn and as a result, debate around the environment was muted in the run up to the General Election.
Nevertheless, environmental policy remains a critical element of the Coalition's programme. It is important to remember that as well as being driven by political calculation the Prime Minister’s commitment to the environment is a genuinely held one. It is significant that two of the closest influences on him, his wife Samantha and Steve Hilton, his key adviser, have both voted for the Green Party in the past.
Immediately after the new Government was formed, the Prime Minister underlined his commitment, by pledging that he would lead the “greenest Government ever.” Crucially he acknowledged the importance of his Liberal Democrat partners in delivering on this pledge by stating that “when you mix blue and yellow you get green”.
