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David Ritter
National decisions remain the essential building blocks of effective ecological internationalism.
It is in the nature of social democrats to be outward-looking, to seek the good of the world beyond the borders of the nation. We are natural internationalists. In the realm of ecological politics, the trend is further accentuated because so many major environmental problems transcend sovereign boundaries.
In the social Europe of the future, the left should not abandon its internationalism or cosmopolitanism. But our breadth of vision and universalism should be tempered with awareness that in addressing transnational environmental predicaments, national decisions continue to be of vital significance. Invariably it is domestic concerns that determine international negotiating positions. All eyes may currently be on Copenhagen - and without doubt a legally binding deal tying nations to cut emissions in line with the science is urgently required - but in the mean time the industrial future of nations is being decided in a multitude of small and large decisions about planning and investment.
Any state serious about arresting climate change must ensure that the right infrastructure decisions are being made now. Path dependencies ensure that the decisions we make today will determine what we are emitting in five, ten and twenty years time. For too long giant energy utilities have dictated the terms of the debate. As mundane as it may sound, the fate of the world lies in planning permissions and targets for reducing emissions - and meeting other measures of environmental sustainability will only be achieved if better choices are made.
In a British context, key engagements in the transition to a low carbon economy - such as the battle over new dirty coal and the (now shelved) expansion of Kingsnorth power-station in Kent, and over the proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport - have been hard fought. In the case of the latter, the Brown government continues to assert that a third runway is essential, despite the overwhelming ecological case against. However, the swell of opinion against the runway continues to grow, and leading left figures such as Jon Cruddas have now come out firmly against the proposal.
Opposing new dirty developments should become rallying issues around which progressives can organise. Yet the politics of the third runway do not easily split between left and right: some major unions appear to support the project, while the Conservative opposition are committed to cancelling it if they are elected. The Tory Party has, to its credit, stolen a march on the issue of Heathrow expansion. This is progressive territory seized by David Cameron's Conservatives for no good reason.
Worldwide, there is tension on the left between the imperative of job creation and security and the need to re-gear to a low carbon economy. It is to be expected that, as with any significant change of economic direction, there will be consequences for working people. However, if climate change is not adequately addressed it will be the workers and the unemployed which are first and worst affected.
The challenge for social democrats is to decarbonise the economy while simultaneously managing the transition so that working people are not disadvantaged. The creation of an abundance of new green jobs is the clear answer to this - for example in retrofitting buildings, developing renewable energy, and constructing climate-friendly infrastructure, all of which could be associated with ample support for new training and career transitioning. These types of measures are outlined in detail in the proposed Green New Deal advocated by the New Economics Foundation. As social democrats we should be able to urge our fellow citizens to 'save the climate: get a job' - because we've supported industrial and economic paths to promote opportunities for a boom in green employment prospects.
Almost thirty years ago, eminent Canadian political scientist Robert W. Cox urged that 'we must shift the problem of changing world order back from international institutions to national societies'. The observation remains salient: international institutions are crucial to long-term solutions to global environmental problems, but domestic political and economic formations are constitutive of international politics. Ecologically and socially progressive national decisions are the essential building blocks of effective planetary architecture. As good ecological internationalists, social democrats must also be good nationalists by supporting domestic pathways to socially just green development.
Formerly a leading Indigenous rights lawyer in Australia, David Ritter is currently Head of Biodiversity Campaigns at Greenpeace UK in London.
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