The Climate Majority Project

The issue of climate change seems to be in a strange cycle in British politics, or certainly in the Conservative party. We get moments of progress and commitment. Then there’s silence for a bit. Then everything goes backwards all of a sudden.

David Cameron campaigned on the idea that you could ‘vote blue, go green’ in his early days, then a few years later was railing about ‘cutting the green crap’. A renewed focus on the climate under Theresa May and Boris Johnson is currently being undermined by Rishi Sunak. His administration seems determined to fight the election on the full set of culture wars issues, and they have recently taken an explicitly pro-car, pro-fossil fuels line.

Some of these politicians may have actual principles in play, but for the party as a whole it appears to be entirely political: just say whatever will win votes from target constituencies. Cameron needed the middle classes, and did a photo shoot where he hugged a husky. Sunak sees votes in the ‘war on motorists’ and did a photo shoot where he sat in Margaret Thatcher’s car and declared himself the enemy of low traffic neighbourhoods.

Climate change action needs consistent and long term commitment, and so this is all very depressing. It’s also misguided, because there is broad majority consensus that climate change matters. It’s one of those issues, like gun control in the United States, where people seem to overestimate public opposition.

A consistent 70% or so of British adults are convinced by the case for action on climate change. That’s almost unchanged in the last five years of Yougov’s bi-monthly polling – with a consistent 10% that say they don’t know and 20% stick-in-the-mud sceptics of one degree or another. Equally consistent is the half of UK citizens who think that the government isn’t doing enough about climate change.

The Conservatives have taken a gamble that if they pitch to the sceptics, this will win them the votes they need in the marginal seats they are targetting. It might work – but it might also lose them seats elsewhere, given that majority support for climate policy.

So, with the election strategy still being shaped, now is the vital moment to remind politicians of all stripes that the climate matters to us as voters. That is a role for the quiet climate majority. We already know it matters to Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. The government has set itself firmly against those voices, casting itself as the ‘sane’ alternative. We need to insist that other views are possible, that there’s a middle ground and that millions of people occupy it.

One action group that has recently formed to make this point is the Climate Majority Project. It’s been specifically created for people who want to do something about the climate, but can’t ally themselves with radical protest. “The great majority of the UK public doesn’t want to participate in radical protest,” they say, “and research shows that many are turned off by the idea of activism. A growing majority now see the need for an immediate response and want to play their part, but they often lack awareness of the depth of changes necessary, and the agency to make those changes.”

The project hopes to be a rallying point for climate action beyond protest, in businesses, communities and at the local level. Rather than dictate priorities, they recognise that action will take many forms depending on where people are. The important thing is to help people understand what they can do, building communities of purpose and amplifying their impact without ever taking the streets with a placard or a tube of superglue.

Interestingly, the main spokesperson for the project is Rupert Read, who was previously a media contact for XR. It’s similar to what I’ve tried to do myself locally. Having helped to set up Extinction Rebellion in Luton a few years ago, I’ve put my energies into founding Zero Carbon Luton in the 18 months. It’s not a matter of trying something else after failing. XR won some real gains locally, helped to get climate back on the agenda, and now we need a more constructive climate presence in the town to push on after that breakthrough.

There’s a role for protest, and there’s a time for protest. A radical element to a conversation is important, calling authorities to account and keeping up the pressure. You also need those who can do the hard work of delivering the green transition, who can go to meetings, and write letters, and train people in climate literacy. You need community organisers in schools, offices, sports clubs, and ordinary streets.

It needs that climate majority, who keep consistently saying that this matters and we need to do more, but who aren’t quite sure what they can do themselves. And it needs those people now, so that the climate issue isn’t fought on polarised lines come the election.