Andrew Simms's Blog, page 18

86 months and counting ... | Andrew Simms

The Conservatives may just be the party to ditch economic growth as a policy and oversee the change our climate needs

There are only seven more annual political conference seasons to go before the world enters a new, far more dangerous phase of unpredictable global warming, based on the risk categories of climate scientists.

That means we should already be able to see genuine solutions emerging in the debates and speeches echoing around the nation's conference capitals of Brighton, Bournemouth ...

Labour conference | No greenery in the political ecosystem | Andrew Simms

Any vision of a genuinely better world gets trampled beneath the suited herd and their passion for technocratic tinkering

Fears of species extinction at the Labour party conference have been uncommonly domestic in Brighton. Concern for the future of the nocturnal Aye-Aye, the exotic White Rhino or the fate of the climate, have all come a distant second to the survival of the party itself.

Ed Miliband, at least, has tried to combine the two. Roving the corridors of the conference secure zone...

87 months and counting … | Andrew Simms

Today marks the start of a drive towards Britain making real cuts in carbon emissions. Will the government join in?

It could be the premise for a zeitgeist science-fiction thriller about global warming. Secrets, lies, and breathless chases along corporate corridors. Millions of pounds at stake, and ultimately millions of lives too. The UN suspends an auditor at the heart of a mechanism key to the success of the international climate change treaty. In another country, a multimillion carousel...

A cap would fit us all | Andrew Simms

The maximum wage isn't just for equality: it helps firms – and big earners – to function happily

Whether it is bankers, doctors or dentists pulling in excessive pay, people are left wanting to spit at their greed. But John Varley, Barclays chief executive, reacted in horror this week to the suggestion of a Radio 4 interviewer that some parameters should be put around pay and bonuses awarded to bank staff. It would "interfere with the market". This, it should now be clear, was a deeply strange ...

88 months and counting | Andrew Simms

Is the Vestas case merely a symbolic blip, or something more interesting? Dim hope can be found in this dismal affair

Picture the scene. It's the beginning of the second world war. Germany's industrial war machine is in full production and Hitler is advancing across Europe. Back in England, the government decides that the cost and planning complications of building tanks and aircraft are just too great and lets the factories – who would be willing to build if there was a demand for them –...

89 months and counting | Andrew Simms

This month environmental initiatives nurtured green shoots in the economy, which returned the favour with slower growth

They're still out there, the deniers, but they become increasingly exotic. And excuses for inaction on global warming become stranger. One I found would have us believe that spending on wind farms was responsible globally for "killing millions" through the misallocation of resources. That came from a panellist at a public debate at one of the UK's leading scientific...

90 months and counting | Andrew Simms

With the clock running in the climate change countdown, post-
Enlightenment faith in technological fixes may not be enough

Ten months have passed since pointing out that we have, at best, 100 left before a new, far more dangerous phase of global warming begins. The "chatter" of concern is getting louder. But at the same time, the political system in Britain has been wracked and absorbed more by its own inadequacies than by this fundamental threat to civilisation.

The fall of the Roman Empire...

Cuba's lessons in survival | Andrew Simms

Cuba has endured the decline of oil, extreme weather and an economic crisis. Could it teach us how to do the same?

The hiss from the audience could have been shock, surprise or a simple misunderstanding. A woman whose question stretched almost to the length of a speech by Fidel Castro said that Cuba's dire economic predicament was the result, partly, of a criminal government. It just wasn't clear which government she meant (more on which below). This was the first of a series of Hay events a

No green shoots on climate change | Andrew Simms

The first 'green budget' is very balanced – every measure to stop climate change is balanced with one that makes it worse

Faced with worsening projections for global warming and energy security, learning that the wind turbine maker Vestas will be closing its factory on the Isle of Wight is a bit like hearing that pharmaceutical companies are closing down the production of flu vaccines just as the alert for swine flu goes from level five to full pandemic.

The comparison is useful in more ways...

Andrew Simms on how Britain can learn about living at low environmental cost from small islands

The experience of small islands can teach us a lot about living good lives at low environmental cost

'A man who falls from a 100-storey building will survive the first 99 storeys unscathed," wrote the economist EJ Mishan in response to critics of his attack on the costs of economic growth. It was the 1960s and then, as now, it was heresy to question growth. The cry went up: "But natural resources haven't actually run out yet, and what about the costs of not growing?" Mishan returned to his...