‘We know that future generations will hold us in infamy if we leave them with a climate disaster unaddressed”.
(Ed Miliband, Foreign Secretary).
Well, indeed. Unfortunately, the UK’s current commitments do not align with the current science regarding climate change. Let alone with our international obligations, as a rich nation with a massive historical carbon footprint, meaning we should take a larger share of the cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions that are now so urgently required.
Ed Miliband has been succeeded as Secretary of State at DESNZ by Miatta Fahnbulleh. They’ve calculated that the target they’re aiming at for the 2038 – 2042 budget period is the best they can get away with on a business-as-usual basis.
I think they’re wrong. But I don’t know just how wrong they are. Because I don’t know the basis on which they came to these very conservative conclusions. And that’s what I – and many others — would like to know. Which means being able to see the detailed advice that civil servants gave Ed Miliband in the first instance, and now being used by Miatta Fahnbulleh.
Unfortunately, Miatta (in the job for just a few months) has decided that her department is not going to share that information. What?! This is a former CEO of the New Economics Foundation, an organisation which used to set great store on the importance of transparency in government matters.
So the indefatigable Carbon Reckoning has decided it’s going to have to force DESNZ to provide that information – by bringing a Judicial Review of the decision-making process.
It’s pathetic, isn’t it, that we have to go to these lengths with Ministers who’ve made such a big thing about their commitment to transparency in public affairs and about the importance of addressing the climate crisis.
I’ve recorded a little video to support Carbon Reckoning’s campaign – check it out here.
And if you want to help financially, please see the crowdfunder.
Jonathon Porritt 9 October 2026
Image attribution: © Richard West, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph
