Guernsey lags behind in green race
THE race to carbon neutrality is underway. And our neighbours want to win it.
The Government of Jersey has drawn up a route map to victory and believe the island ‘can and should become the first carbon neutral jurisdiction in the British Isles’.
It’s not just about bragging rights, of course. The main goals are clean air and to protect and enhance their natural environment.
But Jersey also wants the ‘reputational capital’ that comes with standing out from the crowd. With bold plans they feel they can get there.
The first of those plans was published on New Year’s Day.
It is an uplifting document, far removed from anything yet seen in this island.
The Carbon Neutral Strategy 2019 builds on Jersey’s declaration in May last year that the island faces a climate emergency and a pledge to be carbon neutral – to cause no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – by 2030.
Guernsey, for the record, rejected the chance to declare an emergency, fearing that it would be virtue signalling to salve consciences and a substitute for action.
There is something to that. But if Jersey can ally action with signals it has a potent green message it can sell to the world.
Action, of course, is expensive. Neutrality by 2030 could cost Jersey as much as £600m.
But the island’s environment minister makes the point that the choice is not whether to become carbon neutral, but when. With the UK legally committed to 2050 and the EU likely to follow, Jersey ‘will surely follow suit, willingly or under international obligation’.
Furthermore, it argues that delay only increases costs and reduces benefits.
If this is a race, Guernsey is lagging. Per person, this island produces 5.7 tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, Jersey 3.5.
Our much-vaunted energy policy is late and the climate change action plan is not due out until May.
If we are to catch up there needs to be a sea change in attitudes, especially among deputies.
A race to be first could speed things up. If the prospect of a global climate catastrophe is not quite enough to stir islanders into action, beating Jersey to the finish line could only help.