Hints that Tory majority may usher in a climate change parliament

For many, it was meant to be the climate change election.

The last year has seen the issue of global warming surge up the political agenda as the evidence racks up of the damaging consequences of rising emissions.

Much of that landed during the general election campaign as a string of reports were published to tie in with the UN COP 25 climate change conference in Madrid, which was taking place at the same time as Britain’s politicians were trading blows.

“‘If not now, when?” was the Green Party’s campaign slogan.

Vestiges of lingering scepticism about climate change were put to the side as the parties competed to see who could set the boldest net zero emissions target.

However, the issue didn’t get as much cut through during the campaign itself.

It’s true that this year’s campaign featured the first ever TV general election climate change debate, although the event itself was eclipsed by a media row over the prime minister’s failure to show up.

And when it came to the major set-piece debates between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, the future of the environment hardly figured as the Labour and Tory leaders focused on their key campaigning themes of the NHS and Brexit.

In the end, Labour’s bold pledge to aim for net zero emissions in the 2030s was trumped at the ballot box by the Conservatives’ less dramatic promise to hit the target by 2050.

Many in the utilities sector would argue that the evidence points to the Tories’ target being the more realistic one.

But, there are concerns about the lack of detailed policy proposals contained in the Conservative manifesto on how to get to net zero.

We know that the new government will push for more wind power and that its first Budget will contain cash for carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. But, beyond these commitments, which look suspiciously like they may have been plucked from November’s mooted Budget that never was, there is little to go on. There is silence, for example, on the effective ban on onshore wind and solar farms that was a feature of the last two Tory manifestos.

This gives the new government an unusually free hand, which will worry those who remember what happened the last time that the Conservatives won a majority in 2015 when a host of decarbonisation initiatives were dismembered.

And the much larger majority secured by the Conservatives this year means that the re-elected Johnson has even greater leeway than his predecessor but one David Cameron to pursue his own agenda.

The scale of the Conservatives’ election victory has reshaped the nature of its parliamentary party

The new breed of new Tory MPs don’t tend to represent rural constituencies where voters turn puce when wind turbines are erected.

Instead they are more likely to be cut from similar cloth to Simon Clarke, the net zero target evangelising Middlesbrough MP who is excited at the wage and steady jobs that new renewable projects can bring to their depressed constituencies.

The Tories will be under pressure to deliver on decarbonisation in the run up to hosting next year’s COP 26 summit in Glasgow. Many will be hoping that the policy-light manifesto will prove a blessing rather than a bane for efforts to tackle climate change.