A few weeks ago an environmental sceptic told me that “green” was now a dead issue. He confidently asserted that all my “tree hugging” was now futile when people were worried about their finances and their mortgages.
Yet today, we have the Prime Minister warning about the shocking amount of food wasted every year and launching the findings of his review into the sustainability of biofuels. Both of these are essentially environmental issues.
You cannot divorce the environment from economics: whether it is the taxes placed on a litre of petrol, or the perverse incentives that make “buy one get one free” popular in the supermarket (encouraging us to buy food we don’t want and probably won’t eat). Both are issues important to the household budget AND to the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
It is precisely because times are tough that it makes sense to economise and stop wasting food. The environmental effects of wasting less should be obvious. Equally, the high price of oil is a reality that changes how much petrol we use in our cars, and so reduces pollution.
The environment can only benefit from the most efficient use of resources possible, and right now it seems that that is what everyone is arguing for. We might not get agreement at the G8 on a global deal on CO2 emissions, but at least the terms of debate have changed.
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