Article: Paying for climate policy

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Article: Paying for climate policy

Paying for climate policy: The case for long-term public borrowing

By: Matthew Lockwood

Published in Juncture 26 Sep 2013

We should ‘borrow’ from future generations to fund measures to mitigate climate change now, argues Matthew Lockwood.

Ed Miliband’s dramatic pledge to freeze energy prices at the Labour party conference this year was a simple, and so far popular, move. But underneath it lies a complex dilemma for the left on climate policy. In the mid-2000s, a wave of public concern about climate change led centre-left politicians across Europe to the view that a deeper green agenda could revive interest in progressive politics. In the UK’s Labour party, the clearest proponents of this new approach were David and Ed Miliband, during their respective spells at Defra and the DECC. Climate change was embraced as an issue by progressive parties partly because it fitted well into a wider narrative about cosmopolitanism and internationalism. On the continent, social democratic parties formed a number of ‘red-green’ coalitions with green parties, putting forward bold targets and policies on energy and transport. However, following the financial crisis and with the long economic depression, there was an increasing realisation that parts of electorates that were crucial to the centre-left vote did not feel that they had benefited from the cosmopolitan agenda. Climate policy has increasingly become ever more difficult for progressives……………..

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