Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Decarbonisation 'impossible under current political leaders'

None of Britain's leading politicians are able to provide the impetus needed to make the transfer to a low-carbon economy, a former adviser to David Cameron has said.

Sustainability expert Jules Peck told politics.co.uk a "paradigm shift in society" is required to "radically decarbonise" the economy.

"Right now the responses from politicians are looking really really poor on that challenge," he said.

"At the moment… there's a very, very poor political discourse on the scale of change that's needed. It's not about a few wind turbines – it's about transforming our society away from consumerism."

Mr Peck, who was director of David Cameron's quality of life policy group for two years, has previously worked for the European Commission and in government and corporate positions in both the US and Britain.

He says only US president-elect Barack Obama has the capability and capacity to create the changes needed and that, in Britain, political leaders are wary of connecting political and philosophical debate because of concerns they will not be taken seriously.

"Any politician or business leader or media person who puts their head above the parapet ends up being ridiculed by the media," Mr Peck added.

"That's a great shame because it's exactly that kind of leadership which we need to debate in society now."

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