The climate agreement in Paris is being hailed as a triumph. But is it really, and what does it mean for business?

Getting the governments of nearly 200 countries to agree to any one thing is no mean feat. And the climate talks weren’t just ‘anything’. That’s why expectations were low in the run up to COP 21 in Paris.

In the event, the final agreement is at the upper end of expectations. More than 180 countries have committed to cut emissions significantly. They’ve agreed to a five year review or ratchet mechanism for further commitments in future. Their long term goal is for global warming to stay “well below” the threshold of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, so as to prevent run-away climate change. Surprisingly, a 1.5 degree aspiration (“endeavour to limit”) is also included. Continue reading →

Yesterday saw the launch of a book project that I’ve been working on with colleagues over the last year. Between us, we persuaded 27 authors to put pen to paper and say what should be in a programme for government, one that’s fit for the world we live in today. Some 70 people from business, NGOs, academia, think-tanks and political parties joined us in Westminster for the launch.

Our choice of the title “Green Book” is a very conscious nod towards the Orange Book of a decade ago and indeed Lloyd George’s Yellow Book – really authored by John Maynard Keynes – 85 years ago. Last week I wrote how times have changed since then.

Each author has a specific point of view but all were united in saying we can’t go on as we are, both as a country and as a party. As editors, we were clear that the LibDems are now a party of national government; we need a programme to put before the voters that’s frank about the challenges Britain faces: the first industrialised nation that has largely exhausted its natural resources and now has to compete for energy, food and raw materials with the burgeoning economies of India, Brazil and China.

As a party of government, now and after the next election, we have to change the narrative too if we are to succeed. More and more austerity, explained as paying off Labour’s debts, is neither an economic strategy nor a persuasive political proposition. At stake is not just a ‘lost decade’, bad though that is, but any chance of a prosperous economy and fair society into the foreseeable future. Oil at $100 a barrel and commodity prices more than doubling over the last decade represent fundamental changes we’re not yet facing up to.

This means we need to be the party of long term investment – in houses that are so well insulated they stay warm in winter and cool in summer, in transport that doesn’t rely on burning expensive fossil fuels, in ‘knowledge’ jobs that can’t be off-shored, in a ‘local economy’ with shorter food miles and greater resilience to global shocks, and above all in an energy infrastructure that doesn’t rely on the Russians for gas to keep the lights on.

We need to be the party of responsible big business, and challenge them through fiscal and regulatory incentives to be partners in investing for a sustainable economy – everything from fair wages and training new staff to spending their growing cash piles on R&D for hyper-efficient new products and services that literally don’t cost the earth.

We need to be the party that gives hope to ordinary citizens that the future can be better than the current reality – a future they help create, one where we grow in our well-being as humans, rather than accumulate yet more ‘stuff’ as consumers.

We call this programme ‘green liberalism’. In the book we’ve grouped our authors’ ideas under five themes:

• modernising the economy and building long term resilience
• rebuilding infrastructure and regenerating communities
• putting citizens and consumers at the heart of green liberalism
• combating market failure and taxing pollution
• reforming national government and making best use of international alliances

Read more about it here www.green-book.org.uk and come to our fringe meeting with Nick Clegg and Ed Davey at Brighton on Saturday lunchtime, 9^th March.

The Green Book: New Directions for Liberals in Government, edited by Duncan Brack, Paul Burall, Neil Stockley and Mike Tuffrey, published by Biteback price £12.99, was launched at the House of Commons on Monday 4^th March.

This article first appeared in LibDemVoice

Mike Tuffrey seeks inspiration from Roosevelt in advocating a four point plan for a sustainable economic recovery.

With all the depressing news about the economy, I can recommend a re-reading of the inaugural address of newly-elected President Franklin D Roosevelt, given in the depths of the Depression on March 4, 1933. Aside from his well-known call to arms against fear itself, he did a nice (and topical) line in banker-bashing too: “Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men”.

Elements of his prescription are highly relevant for us today – us as a country and us as a party. Last month I argued we need a new distinct alternative economic strategy, for jobs and business growth, not just fiscal responsibility.

Since then, the noises from our team in Westminster have been encouraging, though we are a long way from positioning the party with our own ‘sustainable growth’ approach as part of rebuilding the LibDem ‘brand’. This is vitally important at the half-way mark of this Parliament. The focus on getting the low paid out of tax and opposing NHS privatisation is good but not enough.

To advance thinking, I’ve developed a ‘four plus two’ plan as a contribution to a debate (run by London Remade) about what a sustainable economy looks like regionally. It hardly needs saying that the situation is urgent and growing: almost 400,000 Londoners – one in ten, the second highest in the whole country – are unemployed and seeking work.

First are four main pillars for immediate results:

• Housebuilding – a big programme on land that is in public ownership
• Skills for young people – including a role for responsible large firms
• Local jobs and business – especially in the new environmentally-sound industries
• Fair wages – since trickle-down economics can’t be relied on

To these four, I have added two longer term goals – zero carbon and zero waste. Taken together, this would get Londoners to work, improve their housing, health and environment, encourage local business, and give our economy and society much greater resilience.

You can read more about the plan ‘Nothing to fear but fear itself’ here and more about the London Remade debate here.

This article first appeared in LibDemVoice