In a cost of living crisis, heat pumps and electric cars are out of reach for most. Britain needs to fund a genuinely fair transition – and fast, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
Some of the resistance is undoubtedly down to the Mr Toad tendency, enraged by any attempt to prise their hands off the steering wheel. (Though clean air zones aren’t strictly speaking designed to force motorists on to the bus, by painting driving as a filthy, antisocial habit, they undoubtedly offer a hefty nudge in that direction). But there remains an awkward grain of truth in the argument that – ironically, much like air pollution itself, which is most lethal to the poorest living on busy arterial roads – clean air zones are toughest on people who can least afford to comply. That means delivery drivers buzzing around on cheap mopeds; white van drivers; shift workers dreading the day their knackered old banger fails its final MOT, because it’s the only way to get home safely in the middle of the night; and also small high street businesses struggling to stay afloat, worried this might be the final death knell for customers driving into town.
None of this changes the fact that pollution kills, cities need to wean themselves off cars, and the climate crisis poses an existential threat. But if going green costs money that not everyone has, then ultimately there are only two plausible political responses. The first is utterly unconscionable, since it means reneging on net zero. The second is to find the money for a genuinely fair transition, and fast.
This isn’t just about Ulez. There are some alarmingly big bills looming for millions of households in the name of saving the planet, and however clearly people might see the moral case for getting rid of their gas boiler or their old petrol car at a time when forest fires are ravaging Greece and flash floods are hitting Spain, money is money. If you genuinely can’t afford to switch, few things are more alienating than being made to feel guilty about that by people shocked at how hot it was on the beach in Sicily this year.
While it's UK-centric, I think the points in this article apply generally and globally, and we cannot shirk away from the fact that wealth must be redistributed fairly to allow people to reduce their carbon footprint. Normal people shouldn't be made to choose between their current urgent survival AND their communal/future survival. "Going green" should not be a privilege.
This is just hostage shield politics.
If the author cared about the moped riders (they don't) then electric mopeds with a swappable battery pay back in a year of use.
If the author cared about the shift worker, then (e)bike lanes, all night bus routes, and electric busses are a solution instead of using them to block clean air zones (and continue killing theim with CVD from the pollution).
Subsidized mini splits for homeowners and electric heat as a condition of habitability for rentals are how to ease the burden there. Not saying "oh well, better subsidize oil furnaces".
I hate opinion pieces in newspaper. While The Guardian is still relatively neutral since they don't have a billionaire owner, I still skip past the opinion section every time.
Just as you said there are tons of cost effective solutions to many issues raised in the blog post. If the same thing was posted here people would tear it apart even more. But because it's from a reputable newspaper it somehow gets more credibility. It's such a dangerous thing, people will give it way more credit than it deserves and make change harder.
Man that is a great idea. Honestly they should require rentals to get inspected before each new tenant at the owners expense and also require fully up to date energy efficient appliances and such along with minimum insulation standards. Not only would it save energy but now landlords will have to think twice about rental increases which might drive away their tenants and thus wing off an inspection.
Nah. Don't worry about the mandatory inspection or triggering only on new rentals. Just consider any building without good insulation and other energy efficiency measures uninhabitable. No rent needs to be paid while it is out of date, and any rent accidentally paid before it was updated is owed back to the tenant. Maybe grandfather in old leases for a few years.