Conservative party support for environmental causes has generally been vocal at election time but hesitant and half-hearted in power. On one hand, the party – with the exception of a few hardcore climate crisis deniers – has never reached the total opposition to green causes that disfigures rightwing parties in other nations, in particular the US Republicans. On the other, it has generally failed to enact the kind of legislation that would allow the UK to take a global lead in the battle against global heating, as can be seen from the records of three recent Tory prime ministers.
Margaret Thatcher
Remembered for her shortlived “green period” in the late 1980s when she helped put the climate crisis, acid rain and pollution on the political map. “Mankind and his activities are changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways,” she told the UN general assembly in 1989. Her green enthusiasm did not last long, however, and by 1992 it had all but evaporated. She did not attend that year’s Rio Earth summit, leaving her successor, John Major, to sign up Britain to forest, climate and other agreements. After that she had little more to say about the environment until her 2002 memoirs, when she attacked Al Gore and derided what she called his “doomist” predictions.
Boris Johnson
Johnson made much of his green credentials. They were in his blood, he claimed. And during his time in office, he was credited for overseeing plans to phase out petrol and diesel cars, pledging to protect British land and sea and witnessing a boom in offshore wind power. He was, arguably, the greenest prime minister that the Conservative party has produced. However, campaigners also say Johnson’s green achievements were fragile, flawed and undermined by U-turns and omissions that included policies affecting road-building, airport expansion, North Sea oil and gas licensing, and a new coalmine in Cumbria. All confound Johnson’s claim to be an ecowarrior.
David Cameron
Posing with huskies in the Arctic remains one of the most eye-catching images of his rise to power. Shortly after his trip, he pledged that his administration would become the “greenest government ever”. But actions never matched the rhetoric. Once he pledged that carbon capture and storage was “absolutely critical” for cutting emissions, but later scrapped a £1bn scheme that could have helped the UK take a lead in developing the technology. Building new onshore windfarms was severely curtailed during his time in power, while tax breaks were given to the shale gas industry. Halfway through his leadership, Cameron’s stance had changed dramatically, when he reportedly told aides to “get rid of all the green crap” from the government’s energy policies.
