In the news
Bright Blue senior researcher Sam Hall has written in the Telegraph about Trump's impending decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement. He argues that efforts to combat climate change will continue, with huge economic and political momentum around the world.
Here's an excerpt:
Trump is swimming against the tide. There is little chance of a reprieve for old king coal in the US, which is being outcompeted by renewables and shale gas.
Bright Blue senior researcher Sam Hall has written for the Daily Telegraph about our tree planting campaign. He argues that Brexit gives us the opportunity to redirect subsidies towards a reformed grant scheme for tree planting.
Here's an excerpt:
Tree planting would be one popular way, including among the people who elected a majority Conservative Government in 2015, to make a success of Brexit, using the powers and funding which currently reside with the EU to improve the way we support British farmers and improve the natural environment.
Bright Blue's senior researcher Sam Hall has written for Times Red Box about the Conservative manifesto. He argues that Theresa May should make a bold offer to liberal Britain on the environment in order to win over Remain voters.
Here's an excerpt:
In this regard, the environment would make a particularly strong Conservative pitch: it appeals to all varieties of Conservative voters, as well as to liberals in the centre-ground.
Bright Blue's new campaign to improve tree planting grants after Brexit is covered in the Letters section of the Daily Telegraph. Together with a group of organisations, Bright Blue urges the Government to guarantee and reform the current incentives for tree planting after the UK leaves the Common Agricultural Policy.
Here's an excerpt:
We are supporting a new campaign by the liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, for the next government to commit itself to providing grants for tree planting to farmers after Britain leaves the EU, as a priority for its new domestic agricultural policy.
Bright Blue senior researcher Sam Hall has written for CapX about the forthcoming air quality plan. He argues conservatives should support an expansion of low emission zones to improve public health in pollution hotspots.
Here's an excerpt:
Since last summer, Bright Blue has been campaigning for the Government to enable all English cities to introduce low emission zones where pollution is a problem. This is a conservative solution, supported by 57 per cent of Conservative voters, according to our recent polling.
Bright Blue senior researcher Sam Hall has written for the Times Red Box about our recent polling report. He argues that Conservative voters want a Green Brexit with strong environmental protections maintained.
Here's an excerpt:
But most significantly, we find an overwhelming majority of Tory voters want to either maintain or strengthen all the main EU-derived environmental regulations after Brexit, including a majority of those who voted to Leave.
Bright Blue senior researcher Sam Hall has written for Conservative Home about our new polling report. He argues that, despite a few vocal sceptics, mainstream Conservatives support policies to protect and improve the environment.
Here's an excerpt:
At a time when there’s a climate-sceptic Republican President in the White House reversing American climate action, our polling reveals most British Conservatives (60 per cent) accept the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is mostly caused by human activity.
Bright Blue's senior researcher Sam Hall has written for BusinessGreen about air pollution from coal-fired power stations. He calls on Ministers to support new proposals in the European Council to tighten emissions regulations for large plants.
Here's an excerpt:
Put simply, if these proposals are accepted, many more plants will have to choose whether to make expensive upgrades in order to cut their emissions, or simply to close.
Bright Blue researcher Sam Hall has written for The Independent about climate scepticism. He argues that UK conservatives must loudly disown climate sceptics within their movement or risk an electoral penalty.
Here's an excerpt:
In the UK, they are few in number and lack any real hold over the Government’s programme. But their association with the conservative movement risks contaminating the centre-right brand.
Bright Blue's researcher Sam Hall was quoted in the Independent arguing for a green Brexit that protects and improves the UK's environmental laws. He was commenting on the launch of Green Alliance's new Greener UK campaign.
Here's an excerpt:
“As there is strong medical evidence that current EU limits are insufficient to protect public health, the Government should also look to strengthen them so the UK can become a global leader in clean air."
Bright Blue researcher Sam Hall has written a blog for Huffington Post about Bright Blue's campaign on air pollution. He draws attention to the fact that four in ten councils in the UK last year breached the legal limits of nitrogen dioxide.
Here's an excerpt:
This invisible pollution is responsible for around forty thousand premature deaths each year in the UK. It can damage the heart and lungs, as well impair the physical and mental development of children.
Bright Blue researcher Sam Hall has written for the website Reaction about the new Government's early record on the environment. He welcomes the creation of new marine reserves, the ban on microbeads, and the early ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Here's an excerpt:
Removing ‘climate change’ from the Whitehall departmental nomenclature has not weakened the Government’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
Michael Liebreich, a member of our Green conservatism project's advisory board, has written in the Daily Telegraph about his vision for a sustainable London in 2050. This essay was originally commissioned for Bright Blue and Localis's essay collection, The Future of London 2050. He predicts that by 2050 private car ownership in London will decline significantly.
Here's an excerpt:
Private cars have had a good century: they have dominated our streets, for good and for bad, but they palpably going out of fashion in cities around the world.
Bright Blue researcher, Sam Hall, has written an opinion piece for the Yorkshire Post about our air pollution campaign. He calls on the Government to expand their air quality current plans for Yorkshire, which would only see Leeds receive a low emission zone.
Here's an excerpt:
The Yorkshire countryside is renowned for its healthy, invigorating and restorative air. The gulf between this and what is experienced in Yorkshire’s major cities is too great.
Bright Blue researcher Sam Hall had a piece published on Times Red Box about our air pollution campaign. In the piece, he argues why English city councils should be given more powers to establish low emission zones to improve air quality in their local area.
Here's an excerpt:
In the last century we forced dirty factories out of our cities. This century we need to drive polluting vehicles off our roads for good.
A version of the article that is not behind a paywall can be viewed here.
Ben Caldecott wrote an opinion piece for the ConservativeHome website. In his article, he calls for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be scrapped, and for renewables, energy efficiency, and energy storage to be incentivised instead.
Here's an excerpt:
Cancelling Hinkley would provide greater certainty for investors in other technologies thereby encouraging investment in new capacity today.
Bright Blue's Associate Fellow Ben Caldecott has written for BusinessGreen on how to get more productivity investment in the UK. He calls for the UK Guarantees Scheme for Infrastructure and the Green Investment Bank to be unconstrained post-Brexit to provide cheap finance to new clean energy projects.
Here's an excerpt:
Now is the time for Government to review its role in helping to finance productivity-enhancing capital investments.
Ben Caldecott has written an opinion piece for ConservativeHome following the publication of Bright Blue's new report Keeping the lights on. It highlights the central finding that the security of supply is guaranteed under a range of scenarios as coal is phased out.
Here's an excerpt:
Despite what some exaggerated claims suggest, coal phase out even under a high stress scenario, will not result in the lights going out. Committing to the phase out of UK coal-fired power stations is a radical and ambitious conservative approach to dealing with climate change and air pollution.
Bright Blue Associate Fellow Ben Caldecott and Researcher Sam Hall wrote an opinion piece on ConservativeHome about the Green conservatism project and why it's necessary.
Here's an excerpt:
If we are to build effective policies and public support to tackle urgent environmental problems, we need compelling and credible solutions from a centre-right perspective too.
That’s why this week we are launching Bright Blue’s new Green Conservatism project.
Bright Blue Associate Fellow Ben Caldecott has written an opinion piece alongside Nick Hurd MP arguing that Britain must get rid of its coal-fired power stations.
Here's an excerpt:
The reason for widely reported tight electricity margins last week was that 35 per cent of our coal capacity was offline due to various glitches, urgent maintenance, and issues with ramping up.
