Rishi Sunak has ripped up decades of cross-party consensus on climate change
The acclaimed 1990 film Awakenings tells the story of a neurologist who discovers a drug which rouses catatonic patients from decades of “sleep”.
- The acclaimed 1990 film Awakenings tells the story of a neurologist who discovers a drug which rouses catatonic patients from decades of “sleep”.
- I had been there when the UK miraculously built a cross-party consensus around climate change.
- I’d had what you might call a front row seat as a political consensus on climate change emerged in the UK.
- But during the long and uncomfortable 25 minutes of Sunak’s speech, I felt I was witnessing a homage to catatonia.
Delay is costly
- Delay is tantamount to capitulation.
- A key economic principle follows from this: the sooner you act, the lower the final bill.
- Those costs are already being counted: fires in Europe and Canada, droughts in North America and Africa, floods in Libya.
- It’s no surprise to find an embattled political party trying to draw clear blue water between itself and the opposition.
- Not content with betraying the interests of the future, Sunak’s speech has helped turn climate change into a sordid culture war.
- Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.