No no no, not the blooming lightbulbs again! An environmental commentator told me that he was once invited on radio to talk about climate change, on the condition that he didn't "talk about changing your lightbulbs and all that boring stuff". I know I argued a few weeks ago that turning off lights is an important - nay essential - part of the battle against Climate change, but it's only any good if you're also fighting on all other fronts.
The party conferences this year looked as if they were going to be so exciting. The presence of the rambunctious Climate Clinic - basically a roaming space in which to argue about the future of the environment - seemed like a good thing. General awareness appeared high, and both the Tories and the LibDems seemed to be coming up with some serious, even radical proposals. Surely with all that going on Gordon Brown would finally show his green colours - Labour would come up with something radical and new?
What a colossal disappointment. Out of the 7,500 words of Gordon Brown's endless speech, just 175 were devoted to climate change. He's aware of the problem (well that's good). He's wants a review - more paper, yet more words. He wants Britain to "lead in carbon-free vehicles, carbon-free homes and carbon-free industry". Hmm. What a lovely dream. Anything to back that up with? No, we've moved on to Europe now.
What does Hillary Benn, the secretary for State on the Environment, have to say? Anything more specific? Well, not really, as it goes. He too is aware that there's a problem. He tells a moving story of meeting climate change refugees in Somalia, families on the move to escape endless horrifying drought. But like Gordon Brown all he has to offer these families are hazily optimistic visions of the future, which fall far far short of any serious and useful action. In three years, he says, we will be recycling 40% of our waste - but households in Belgium already recycle up to 70% of theirs. In eight years, he says, we will be producing 15% of our energy from renewables - but the current <a href=""subsidy system for domestic renewables is in a mess that no one appears to be able to untangle. In nine years every new home will be carbon-neutral - but we still have no idea how to actually build large quantities of carbon neutral housing.
What is the only concrete bit of action promised? Phasing out old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs (Australia has already banned them by the way). Do Benn and Brown really believe that this is going to do the trick? Is this the best they can do? It will be interesting, next week, to see what Cameron comes up with. But to be honest, it's not going to be very hard to beat Labour - on this front at least.
