"It is no exaggeration to say that the way the Rudd Government deals with climate change will make or break it. Howard will be judged harshly by the historians for his resolute refusal to face up to the dominant economic and moral challenge facing the nation."
Ray also comments on events in Australia where climate change issues are surprisingly low key and asks the question about whether it's different in Europe because the discourse on climate change has been around longer.
Putting these two together.... I'd like to think that how climate change is dealt with would make or break a government but I think the way economic development is dealt with still ranks above the sustainability agenda in western societies. Much of the evidence in UK at the moment points to models of economic growth rather than sustainable development, even though at times we've appeared to be taking climate change seriously. There's a lot of window dressing - we might well now be more into recycling and sustainable procurement etc. but a long way to go on reducing wastes and use of natural resources. I suspect our Government is at present moving away from dealing with climate change rather than towards it and that it won't be that that brings it down though it might contribute. We still have areas where issues of climate change are just missing from the agenda. The moves to build another runway at Heathrow are a case in point. More on the 'laughable politics' around that in Sumptuous.
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