Forum topic: Green Lanes cycle lanes proposals have public backing

On reading the notes from the Environmental Audit Committee: Conference on the Government’s Approach to Sustainable Development a couple of points seemed to have some relevance to our own local debate – itself of course itself part of a much bigger picture

Q59 Mike Barry (Director of Sustainable Business, Marks & Spencer): Just a quick word on the consumer. We listen to consumers as much as Government listen to the electorate: 35 million people in our shops every year, we listen, and 80% of them are telling us they are concerned about the future. They want a better future, they want more from central government to take a lead on solving it. When we start to develop solutions that they can participate in, we have shown evidence that we have done the heavy lifting; we will join the journey. But be very clear, 80% of British society say, “We want a better future”. They have seen the linkages of what is happening in their locality, they have seen the issues to do with noise, to do with transport, to do with air quality all the time. We have to find a better way of helping this planet grow and the economy grow within it, and unless we do something very different in the future—both as government and businesses—we will not have an economy and a society to prosper, and that is a huge challenge for all of us

Q61 Lord Krebs (Chair, Adaptation Sub-Committee, Committee on Climate Change): On that question of climate change denials, opinion polls show that the significant majority of the UK population accepts the reality of climate change and the importance of action. Those who lead the campaign to deny the reality of climate change are simply blind to the facts. The facts are irrefutable. The temperature record, as has been measured, the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to be measured, but they are a result of burning fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect. It is like gravity. We do not expect suddenly, if I pick this up and drop it, it will float away up into the atmosphere. We know gravity works and gravity is real and climate change is like that. We have to stick to the facts and say this is what is ineluctable and acknowledge, as Amyas has said, there are certain uncertainties about the speed of change and the magnitude of change but nevertheless it is real and it is a real problem.

Stephanie Hilborne (Chief Executive, The Wildlife Trusts): It is interesting because it brings it back to the ethics point in a way, and what leadership is, which someone else mentioned earlier, and leadership is about doing what is right, not what is easy. Almost always doing what is right is harder than not doing what is wrong. To question it, what harm is there by believing it is happening and what damage can you do by acting more quickly? None. It is the core of risk management, whereas arguing that it is not, we are wasting time arguing. I love your gravity comparison

Q62 Chair (Huw Irranca-Davies): I only have a few brief comments here. Just in light of the last contribution, I remember being called into No. 10 when I was a Minister to explain the right decision that I had made in a particular environmental matter, and it was the right decision. I stood by it. I went through with the then Prime Minister’s special advisers why I had arrived at that particular conclusion and how robust my decision-making was. I said, “There was a right decision and there was an easy decision. I went for the right decision”. They listened and they said, “Okay, we will go with you on this one, but next time can you take the easy decision?” A lot of this is to do with long-term thinking.