Reasons to be cheerful

When one of the guests at our seminar said she had a positive outlook for environmental policy over the next few years, we couldn't resist inviting her to write for our blog. Sarah Fletcher is Sustainability Manager at Lewisham Council; in her spare time, she's also a bit of a connoisseur of vermouth. Here's her honest - and rather cheery - assesssment of the world of energy and environmental policy:

At the SE2 workshop on 9 September - which looked at how the environment is likely to fare under the current government - there was a lot of talk about how the only things which are likely to move forward are those where there’s a clear business case.  Don’t mention carbon or the climate, just focus on returns upon investment.  I don’t think that’s the case though. I think now is exactly the time we need to be doubling down on messages around the environment and the values and ethics relating to stewardship of it.

Business cases are a construct which tend to reflect rather than lead policy and project development.  There’s no set definition of what has to be included or excluded; it’s art dressed up as science.  There’s long been a recognition of the issue of environmental externalities, but they continue to be external rather than intrinsic to most business cases because society agrees that’s acceptable.  A number of environmental policies the government has put in place – such as removing the subsidy for onshore wind or subsidising fracking - don’t have a strong business case but do have strong political support, so expecting business cases to generate change seems unlikely.  

The refugee crisis has shown that, even where governments have responded to the current situation in a way which is consistent with their rhetoric and manifesto pledges, they have been forced by public opinion to change.  This didn’t come about because of a business case, but because of a “hearts and minds” response from the public.  In the face of this empathy, compassion and restatement of values, the government and the media have changed their response.

Engaging hearts and minds is difficult but environmental issues fundamentally link into other priorities which currently attract more attention.  In the environmental sector, massive amounts of time and energy have been spent telling people how much they can save if they don’t fill their kettle with any more water than they need.  The disconnect between these meagre, habitual actions and the big picture is enormous and doesn’t seem likely to be bridged by further facts, stats and abstractions.  More work is being done to link environmental considerations with other areas such health or economics, so the more this can be done the greater the potential for progress insulated from political changes.

Large swathes of environmental programmes are being removed without putting in place new schemes and the resulting vacuum creates the space for innovation and creativity because it’s not clear if or when the government will fill this.  A lot of what has gone – such as the Green Deal – wasn’t successful in generating take-up and has served to distort the market or, in the case of the zero carbon standard, had already been so watered down as to be of negligible value anyway.  For many parts of the supply chain, this is going to be challenging – a whole industry has been built around complying with various Ofgem regulated schemes such as CERT, CESP and ECO.  Whilst the industry has complained about the bureaucracy, for many this has offered a security blanket that has distorted the market and undermined the case for individuals to invest.  There’s a clear market opportunity if the industry can respond to decouple energy efficiency from requirements and bring it into the general building and renovation discussions.

The election of Jeremy Corbyn offers another reason to be cheerful because, irrespective of views on his policies, it’s likely to further change the nature of political debates.  Corbyn is attempting to change the narrative and offering people something different.  This will change the context in which the government operates and could create a space for discussions about areas such as renationalising the energy supply which had previously been closed down.

Another reason to be cheerful is because there’s little choice.  Now more than ever we need to be making positive progress and it’s easier to do this with a sense of optimism and purpose than it is with a bag of negativity.  So farewell to doom and despair; graphs, charts and ROI’s as a selling point; hello to creativity, innovation and positive engagement; reaffirming the need to act because it’s right to do so and being open to the possibility of positive paradigm shifts.   I don’t know yet how to make it happen but, if nothing else, it sounds more interesting…

Our thanks to Sarah Fletcher, Sustainability Manager at Lewisham Council, for sharing her views and encouraging the kind of creative engagement that can lift the debate away from MACC curves and paybacks and on to a more ethical and values-driven level. What do you think? How can we engage with hearts and minds? Can industry innovate without subsidy? Send your thoughts to liz.warren@se-2.co.uk and we'll do our best to post them here on the SE2 blog. If you haven't got time to write a blog, write a tweets and send it out to @se2limited!