Holding my breath

By Claudia Beamish

As a long-time member and ex-Chair of the Socialist Environment Resources Association (SERA) Scotland, who helped set the first renewable energy targets for Scotland, I know we took even ourselves by surprise when we managed to get Scottish Ministers to agree to a then ambitious target. That happened in part because groups who didn’t agree on everything, by any means, were prepared to take the risk and go out in front – together.

I found myself holding my breath last week, hoping representatives of entire countries would do just that.

Rob Edwards, in yesterday’s Sunday Herald, asked whether it’s right to be inside or outside the Copenhagen negotiations. Richard Dixon (WWF Scotland) said:

“We can get a good deal at Copenhagen, but the noise from outside the conference is an essential part of making that happen.”

Let’s wish Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband, Hilary Benn and our team well this week. They have been out in front, along with the EU delegation. They must take others with them in these final days.

We have all been doing what we can and must go on doing so. As Scottish Labour & Co-operative Westminster candidate for Dumfriesshire Clydesdale & Tweeddale, I made a YouTube video with residents and David Neilson, who plays Roy in Coronation Street, called “Claudia’s & David’s climate Change Clips 4 Hard Rain”.

If anyone you know asks “Why support Bangladesh now, in a recession affecting British people?” direct them to www.hardrainproject.com. We are taking Mark Edwards’ Hard Rain outdoor photographic exhibition to venues around the constituency after Copenhagen to keep climate change in the mind. But, more optimistically, I know as an Ecoschools Co-ordinator that while Copenhagen negotiators are doing it for our kids, kids are also doing for themselves.

When Ministers come home with what must be a good, generous, global deal, let’s be clear that we need a just way forward in Britain itself, so it isn’t just residents of leafy glades who get warm, carbon neutral homes. Only subsidies for low income households and communities, by a Labour Government, will ensure that we move forward together, go beyond our own emissions targets and create a truly sustainable society.

Also, on their return, as a long-time SERA member (along with many others in the Labour Party and beyond) I implore Ministers to ask themselves whether a British sustainable energy policy should include nuclear power, with all the risks involved and the unresolvable waste issue? Can I remind those who seem to have forgotten that a just transition [rogramme is about supporting working people and communities in the move away from a toxic economy to a sustainable society.

This is another moment when we need courage – the courage to act on what we know is possible, here in Britain, with renewable resources and energy efficiency. Proving to the world we can create our own energy sustainably and support working people in that process of change would be a fine example. That is something I won’t be holding my breath on. Rather, I’ll be acting to make it happen along with many others.