Guest election blog – Labour by Rosie Pearson

I am a planning and environmental campaigner, co-founder of the Community Planning Alliance, founder of Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons action group, co-founder of the North Essex Farm Cluster and columnist with The Telegraph.

I do not have any strong party allegiances.  I’m interested in policies, not politics.

This is my review of, and my thoughts about, the environmental implications of Labour’s approach to energy as set out in their election manifesto.  Here are my highlights and lowlights.

Things I like:

• ‘Energy’ gets 72 mentions in the manifesto, and it is very welcome to see that the party wishes to put so much of its own energy into energy.  The admirable ambition is to make Britain a clean energy superpower, accelerating the energy transition and addressing climate change.   Much of this is intended to be achieved through ‘Great British Energy’ (still with very sketchy details of how this will work.)
• It is extremely pleasing to see that there will be no new licences to explore new oil fields (because they will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis). In addition, no new coal licences will be granted and Labour will ban fracking.   Strong stuff.
• A new Energy Independence Act will establish the framework for Labour’s energy and climate policies.  This sounds sensible in theory, though the proof is, of course, in the pudding, and will depend what the Act decrees.
• Communities will be invited to come forward with local energy projects and there is a plan to deploy local energy production to benefit communities across the country.  It is an enticing thought that local energy generation schemes could keep power close to where it is needed and see profits retained by the community.   Local-scale schemes reduce the need for environmentally damaging transmission infrastructure and can encourage use of rooftops and previously used land instead of vast acres of greenfield land.

Things I don’t like:

• The manifesto is worryingly silent on the environmental impact of renewables.  Clean, green energy is no longer green if it harms the environment irrevocably.    Labour tells us that we will see a combination of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower projects.  Yet each of these brings downsides as well as benefits. For example, enormous solar farms in our countryside, and on our best farmland, pose a risk to the environment and to our food security.  Sensible discussions around pros and cons of alternatives will be crucial.
• Labour is also silent on the environmental harms that arise from great grid upgrade that is required to facilitate extraordinarily ambitious green energy proposals will cause.   The grid upgrade in its own right could bring more harm than benefits.  That is certainly the case in East Anglia where transmission proposals are causing untold worry and grief because of their impact on the natural environment. 
• The manifesto leaves too many questions.  How will GB Energy and the Green Prosperity Plan actually work?  What will be in the Energy Independence Act?  The devil will be in the detail.

Overall assessment:

There is too much hyperbole (Labour will end climate chaos?) and un-achievable pledges.  For example, Labour proposes to “double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind” by 2030.    Installed onshore wind and offshore wind currently stand at 15GW apiece.   How on earth will Labour ensure these are doubled and quadrupled, respectively?

Would I vote for these environmental policies?

There is lots to like and, if one stands back from the hyperbole, the direction of travel is the right one.  However, there is an enormous and unacceptable risk to the environment.  This risk is heightened further given so much public rhetoric about forcing infrastructure on unwilling communities (the blockers).  My sense is that Labour will be focused tunnel-vision on building ‘green’ things to the extent that it will forget about the collateral damage.  My personal experience is that Labour is not interested in listening to alternatives.