Britain's green transition should belong to everyone, but the government's approach is alienating the public, argues George Monbiot. The Labour government is pursuing a strategy of coercion rather than persuasion, which threatens to undermine the broad consent needed for climate action.
Failure to Communicate
The government has failed to communicate effectively on the climate crisis. Unlike the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been no public information videos or televised emergency briefings on climate breakdown. The National Emergency Briefing campaign, which has shown its film in over 1,000 cinemas and venues across the UK, highlights this gap. Scientists, activists, and journalists are left to explain the issue, but the public heeds a call for action only when it comes from government.
Coercion Over Consent
Last week, the government proposed to curtail the public's legal right to object to new energy infrastructure deemed 'critical'. Development consent orders for such projects would gain the status of acts of parliament, making them nearly impossible to challenge legally. This centralisation of power replaces a planning system based on consent with one based on decree. Keir Starmer has labelled objectors as 'blockers', 'zealots', and 'time-wasting nimbys', but the case of the Vanguard offshore windfarm shows that public engagement can improve decision-making. The judicial review that delayed the project by two years was not frivolous; it highlighted the government's failure to consider cumulative impacts on the landscape, as ruled by Mr Justice Holgate.
Criminalising Protest
While the government restricts legal challenges, it also cracks down on climate protest. A series of laws and restrictions has created a new class of political prisoner, with activists jailed for months or years for demanding stronger climate action. This approach is all coercion, no persuasion, generating anger and resentment that benefits the fossil fuel industry.
Labour's strategy treats the green transition as a holy war against landscape-loving infidels, acting in the interests of green infrastructure developers rather than building public consent. The vast response needed for climate breakdown must be a joint endeavour, happening with the people, not to them. But 'with us' is not a concept this government seems to understand.
