Make climate change a policy principle – or drown in debt

Make climate change a policy principle – or drown in debt

Andrew Simms
Monday March 7, 2005
The Guardian

There are many environments of great concern to the chancellor. But the one made up of land, air, water and living systems has not been chief among them – something that’s clear to anyone who has dealt with the Treasury since Labour came to power in 1997.

The environments that do concern him have left little time for the perceived luxury of thinking green. As a politician, Gordon Brown ensures the Treasury ticks all the boxes of public interest, including the environment. But the issue’s low priority creeps out in unintentional ways. The Treasury’s website has a page devoted to green issues under a sub-menu, Tax and Environment, and it’s illustrated by the view of a man’s back as he walks away from you out of a door.
…
The Kyoto protocol and growth of emissions trading means carbon accounting could become as important to management of the economy as financial accounting. The Treasury still bows before the ultimate indicator, the god of growth. Unless issues such as our per capita carbon emissions and wellbeing, become instrumental, they will remain merely as policy decoration.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1431783,00.html