We can't wash our hands of climate change. So let's roll up our sleeves

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/27/climate-change-ed-miliband-energy-freeze

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Climate change is the greatest threat to our economy and way of life. That threat is exacerbated by scepticism about both whether climate change is happening and whether we can rise to the challenge it presents.

Now that the IPCC has given its latest report, climate sceptics will use any uncertainty, however small, over the scientific details to argue that the best thing to do is nothing. They'll say there is no problem. They would encourage you to believe that not only is climate change unreal, but that we do not need to innovate, explore new power or limit our use of fossil fuels. They will claim that if we cannot be 100% certain about the causes or the size of the problem, the best way forward is to continue with business as usual.

But let's assume for a moment, as most of the public do, that there is a problem. The next response is usually "well, we can't do anything about it anyway". And here is the greatest tragedy of all: not scepticism over the science, but scepticism over our ability to solve problems. We have lost that precious belief Britain used to have: that we should never wash our hands when we could roll up our sleeves.

In the 1940s, while Britain was recovering from a devastating war, William Beveridge changed Britain with that belief. In the middle of the tightest fiscal contraction Britain has ever faced, he had the courage to identify the problems which plagued the UK and to pursue the solutions. He named those problems – those "five giants" – and squalor, idleness, want, ignorance and disease were met head-on with the NHS, a mixed economy and a safety net for those in need. Thanks to his legacy, we had a postwar consensus that when government could act, it should act effectively.

Today we face a different giant evil – climate change and an energy crisis. But instead of rising fully to the challenge, Ed Miliband has opted for yet more sticking-plaster politics, while George Osborne has actively held back the green agenda. Conservatives have even encouraged the view that there is no challenge. So, on the one hand we have potentially damaging vote-grabbing strategies and on the other we have denial.

The latest in this trend – the energy freeze – is tactical politics and bad economics, again demonstrating the priorities of a party that left us paying off the debt of unsolved problems. We should be extremely wary of a policy that risks blackouts and massive pre-emptive price rises in 2014 and 2015, jeopardising investment in the clean, green technologies we need.

Labour seems to be confused over three different issues. One: the energy market isn't working. Will a price cap improve it? No. We need to support smaller, local innovative actors who can generate bright new ideas and break the effective monopoly of the big six. Two: the cost of living is increasing. Rather than deal in knee-jerk policies, the Lib Dems cut income tax to help people directly with increasing costs. Three: the price of energy is rising. Will a quick fix solve this? The answer is self-evident.

If we support simplistic solutions, we make a show of acting while in reality doing nothing. If we support scepticism, we choose to fail before we have even started. But if we deal with the 5% of uncertainty that science might deliver and choose to act anyway, we will not only avoid environmental catastrophe, we will also restore the belief that society can solve the huge problems it faces.

I do not believe that in a country where we invented the steam engine, cloned a sheep and sustained a health system which, despite its flaws, is envied by the world, we do not have the ability to tackle this modern giant. Not to ignore it, not to distract ourselves with populist policies, but to face it head-on. Beveridge did it 70 years ago. Now it's our turn.

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