It is not surprising that a party which is kept afloat by money from trade unions, many in old polluting industries, is conservative in its views on the environment. To emphasise the point, here (belatedly) is DeSmog's take on Labour's 2021 conference:
It’s fair to say a lot of our stories at DeSmog focus on the actions of those on the right-wing of politics.
That’s no surprise, given the willingness of many on that side of the aisle to get in bed with big polluters or oppose carbon-cutting policies - if not to deny climate change is even, well, a thing.
This week, much of our coverage put the Labour Party under the spotlight - and not everything came out looking rosy.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves may have pledged to spend £28 billion a year on tackling climate change if elected - a big step-up from the government’s current plans - and shadow business secretary Ed Miliband may have hinted at an upcoming “net zero transition plan” for every sector of the economy.
But there were still moments at the party conference in Brighton that won’t have cheered the hearts of the climate-concerned.
On Monday, the party’s energy spokesperson, Alan Whitehead, said he backed the activities of biomass giant Drax “completely” at an event organised by the company.
The panel discussion was on how to build a zero carbon energy system, which is slightly awkward given Drax emitted almost 20 million tonnes of CO2 last year (which won’t be sucked up by all the trees it’s planting any time soon.)
And the next day, Labour’s transport guy rejected a call to hit pause on the UK’s multiple airport expansions currently going ahead - despite a recommendation from the Climate Change Committee for no further “net” airport expansion in the country. Which happened to be the same day a huge new research project was published showing just how emitting the UK's aviation sector is.
So a mixed bag, to say the least.
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