With polls showing the climate emergency surging to the top of UK voters’ concerns in the country’s December 17 general election, public service TV network Channel 4 is vowing to “empty chair” Prime Minister Boris Johnson if he fails to show up for a climate-themed debate tomorrow evening.
“Channel 4 has invited seven party leaders to the discussion, but so far only Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, and Green co-leader Sian Berry have accepted the invitation,” the Daily Mail reported Monday. “Boris Johnson and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage have yet to respond to a request to attend the hour-long Emergency On Planet Earth debate on Channel 4 News, which will focus solely on climate change.”
But “the broadcaster said the debate will take place even if they are unable to take up the invitation.” Around mid-month, the Belfast Telegraph said more than 120,000 people had demanded a debate, thanks largely to efforts by the UK Student Climate Network and the climate charity Possible.
“This Thursday 28th @Channel4News will devote its hour @7 to debate climate change,” tweeted Channel 4 News Editor Ben de Pear. “Thus far Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon, Jo Swinson & Sian Berry have confirmed. The invitation remains open to @BorisJohnson & @Nigel_Farage but this debate will go ahead with or without them.”
De Pear told the Daily Mail there is “no more urgent issue facing the planet and we are delighted to open the whole of our program for all the party leaders to show what plans they have to confront it.” Channel 4 presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy said it would be “a huge privilege to be hosting the people who want to run the country debating the most important issue in the world,” and previewed some of the questions that debate might touch on: “How much do we need to change the way we live? Is it the end of fast fashion, fast cars, foreign holidays, and red meat? Do any of them have a credible plan to cut our net emissions to zero?”
Greenpeace UK Head of Politics Rebecca Newsom said it would show the ruling Conservatives “aren’t taking the climate crisis seriously enough” if Johnson is a no-show.
“The pitiful 45 seconds given to the topic in the last head-to-head [debate] was an absolute joke. And while Boris Johnson acknowledged that the climate emergency is a colossal issue for the entire world, his failure to commit to this ‘oven-ready’ climate debate raises question marks over his sincerity,” Newsom added. “The Prime Minister cannot afford to run scared of public scrutiny on the defining issue of our generation. This is a test of leadership anyone wishing to run the country must pass.”
That view looks to have been reinforced by recent polls showing climate change at the top of UK voters’ concerns, with environmental leaders suggesting the numbers point to a permanent shift in British politics, The Guardian reports. The paper adds that Labour “took the unprecedented move” last Wednesday of making green issues the lead item in its campaign manifesto.
“Such focus on climate and the environment would have been almost unthinkable five years ago,” said Green Alliance Executive Director Shaun Spiers. “Tackling climate change runs through this manifesto in a way that is unprecedented from either of the main parties ahead of a UK general election.”
Public concern over the climate is “unequivocal”, and people “back decarbonization by a massive margin”, agreed Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit Director Richard Black. “The UK has never had an election like this one in terms of the profile of climate change. To have all the major parties supporting a transition to net zero within a few decades, and competing with each other on policies to deliver, is unprecedented.”
Earlier in the campaign, The Independent said the environment was placing higher in the opinion surveys than it had since 1990, with 21% of voters listing it as a top concern without being prompted by pollsters—an increase from just 2% in 2012. Polling company YouGov was already tracking the trend in early November.
Carbon Brief has a wrap-up of all the parties’ platforms, while analysis by the Financial Times and Unearthed, Greenpeace UK’s investigative journalism arm, points to the “whole range of environmental targets” the country is on track to miss in the early 2020s.
