Too little, too late

The politics of climate change

Colin Challen MP, Picnic, 256 pages, paperback, £9.99

Labour MP Colin Challen is one of the few politicians with a credible record on climate change.

This book offers a Westminster-eye view of the government’s approach, written from the perspective of a loyal dissenter.

It is particularly scathing about the reliance on market mechanisms to solve climate change. The author argues that higher prices will not necessarily reduce emissions. Last year, the rise in prices drove firms to explore oil sands and other difficult-to-reach reserves, and reignited demand for coal.

Similarly, Challen has no faith in emissions trading, the centrepiece of national and international efforts to control emissions.

He argues that it is the private ownership of energy utilities that makes it harder to tackle climate change in the UK, and urges a renewed discussion about public ownership.

Early in the book, the author poses the question: Where does the power to change things really lie?

However, Challen’s answer — largely a cross-party consensus in Parliament and individual personal carbon allowances — appears to forget the valid arguments put at the beginning of the book of why it’s “too little, too late”.

A labour movement based campaign would be a far more serious proposition for saving the planet.