A year into the Climate Emergency / Alannah Travers

A year into the Climate Emergency

Published on 30th April 2020

This time last year, at the peak of the Extinction Rebellion protests in London, the UK Parliament declared a Climate Emergency.

I remember cycling over to Parliament Square after work, bumping into friends on the grass and wondering what it might actually mean, or lead to, or change. For me, it probably changed quite a lot. In terms of the environment…

A year on, and the answer is not that much.

In June, Theresa May’s commitment of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (enshrined in law, luckily) was welcomed by the pragmatists among the climate movement. The UK became the first member of the G7 to legislate for net zero emissions, meaning it would reduce carbon emissions by 80% compared to 1990 levels. It was progress.

Among the public, a desire for more urgent action persisted for a while.

We can confidently assume that climate breakdown remained a key issue for the younger generation over the following 12 months: YouGov research in January suggested that 70% of 18-24-year olds were more worried about climate change than they had been a year ago.

Although the cut through across society has been less pervasive, last summer polling across generations showed concern for the environment at a record high: a quarter (27%) of Brits cited the environment in their top three issues facing the country, behind only health (32%) and the hazy, traumatic memory that was Brexit (67%).

By the election campaign, perhaps inevitably (and I quote an exasperated father here: “People don't vote for climate policies, they vote for a leader and how much money in their wallet”), the Conservatives avoided environmental discourse and stormed to victory.

Now, the health concerns and resulting implications of covid-19 obliterate almost all else.

During the London protests, I became increasingly involved in the Extinction Rebellion movement and eventually left my job in advertising to work in the media team; an inspiring, exhausting and infuriating experience of total chaos.

Although not a policy think-tank or a Westminster pressure group, a fair criticism you could have thrown was the lack of realistic solutions. Extinction Rebellion’s demands were (and remain) a net zero date of 2025 and citizens’ assembly to sort out the logistics – and aside from increasing awareness of the need to act, there’s not an awful lot more to shout, and certainly no practical suggestions for implementation. Nevertheless, we courted publicity, for a while.

At some point early on, I created a spreadsheet with the councils who had declared climate emergencies; I can’t find the document and (for those who might have it) I wouldn’t bet on its accuracy. But there were at least 250, mostly pushing for targets of 2030, 2035.

Across the country, councillors with actual solutions – and the ability to implement change on a local level - were taking the lead and it was great to see. We continued to meet and speak with MPs and encouraged them to… sort it out.

After the election result, in frustrated exhaustion, I concluded that the climate crisis was just a crisis of competent government. Although we continued trying for a few months, with stilted actions and various campaigns, nothing would change until those in power were convinced.

There are priorities.

How can people not care????? I cried, regularly, to my parents on the phone (and often, also, to whichever brothers were home, laughing in the background) while someone served supper, or prepared a court case or a lesson plan, or fed the dog. Sometimes I challenged them directly.

Now back home, I’m living off these distractions.

Isolated in Devon, with days punctuated by a rota of youtube yoga, David Runciman (and highlow) podcasts, walking the dog, bad guitar and books, it has become difficult to chastise my family for not feeling the “urgency” of the climate emergency. It’s been good to live with people who do not fret about the hopelessness of their existence.

Perhaps this period of isolation is making everyone more introspective. For me, it’s been mostly a break, although it’s been interesting to reflect on that earlier realisation about the state of the planet. Are humans fundamentally selfish – or did I, perhaps, simply land a particularly vicious grad job? Is the government inherently toxic, or do I just identify with the opposition? What is the point of caring, or crying, if you cannot enact change?

Back to covid-19.

It goes without saying that the reduced desire for environmental discussion is not the worst effect of the virus, although radical climate activists would disagree.

The previous month has illustrated stark inequalities within our society. Domestic abuse cases are through the roof. My youngest brother is retaining an expensive (online) education when others are not. People are dying because they do not have necessary equipment.

Despite what many might assume (or be misquoted as thinking), there is no silver lining in the covid-19 pandemic for the climate crisis.

Yes, global CO2 emissions are on-track to drop by 5.5%. But equally, this means the world is still on-track to release 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in a typical year, heating our planet and driving climate change, while we’re mostly sat at home.

In context, global emissions would need to fall by 7.6% every year this decade to have any hope of limiting warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.

Even in my limited capacity as a humanities grad, I understand that we need to completely replace fossil fuels with renewables, totally reduce climate pollutants (such as methane and carbon), protect and restore our eco-system and move away from GDP.*

And what the experts say.

Ultimately, a year on from that declaration, I do think there is hope. The world turned upside down has illustrated how, internationally, governments can respond to an emergency when it is deemed urgent and is tangible.

Perhaps this anniversary of the declaration will be another marker. The only thing blocking climate action was our collective choice not to act.

But whose responsibility is that?

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* Chris Goodall, What We Need To Do Now: For a Zero Carbon Future (2020):

1. Green Energy - powering almost everything with wind, sun and hydrogen

2. Local Grids - taking back local control of our energy generation and distribution

3. Houses fit for purpose - effective home insulation; gas boilers on hydrogen

4. Electric Transport - electrification, car-sharing, free public transport

5. Flights & Shipping - reduce, use hydrogen

6. Sustainable Fashion - eeven more important than @fairfashionfoundation et.c

7. Concrete - replacing fossil fuels in heavy industry, using less cement

8. Plant Food Revolution - global costs of meat are not sustainable