Last night, Gordon Brown told the Hay Festival which politicians in history he admires for their courage. This morning, David Miliband tried to defend the government's record on climate change in front of a hostile audience, a task that must have required political courage of a sort.
The wrong sort, though. The country needs a government with the courage to exercise genuine leadership on climate change. Brown and Miliband need to conjure that up themselves, if we are to have a chance of surviving climate change. The jury is still out on whether they are up to the task.
Here is the track record Miliband had to try and explain away. The Strategic Energy Review of 2002 was a serious consultation, involving more than 60 companies across the British energy sector. The result was a clear consensus in favour of renewable and efficient-energy technologies as a route to deep cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. The Energy white paper of 2003, the real energy white paper, captured that consensus, turned it into a target - 60% cuts by 2050 - and consigned nuclear to the backburner, pending possible review in five years. This was the time when a bit of political courage could have made a big difference: courage to execute the mandate given.
The government set up a Renewables Advisory Board, staffed with senior officials from relevant ministries, and a dozen leaders of renewable energy companies including myself. The board met in a spirit on enthusiasm, at least on the industry side. And met again. And again. Time passed. Nothing much happened.
Somehow, we found ourselves in 2006, with little to claim by way of success, and every member of the renewables family beleaguered in the UK. Meanwhile, overseas, in nations where governments were more willing to intervene in energy markets, renewables industries were enjoying explosive growth.
The nuclear genie duly re-emerged from the bottle in 2006. Another energy review was announced. After a figleaf of a consultation, compared to the one in 2002/3, the review concluded that nuclear power was needed if we are ever to achieve deep cuts in emissions. A new white paper was produced, and published last week. It is as light on policy specifics as ever. It promises yet more consultations, on matters like zero emissions targets for new buildings, and whether or not to double the Energy Efficiency Commitment on generators.
Renewables and efficiency have not been given a chance to show what they are capable of in the UK. I now believe that is primarily because of a particular culture that exists at senior levels in the civil service, especially the DTI. This culture holds that grown-ups get their energy frrom big central power plants, always have and always will. A few bolt-on adjustments to the status quo might be needed because of climate change, but not a whole new paradigm.
The DTI energy mandarins simply do not have the belief, in the right places, that there are new, decentralised ways of powering our economies so long as we enable markets for them in the short term. In that, they are missing the things seen as obvious by their counterparts in Japan, Germany, California and other places.
In my debate with him on the Guardian stage in Hay this morning, David Miliband displayed scant understanding of the revolution that is happening in renewables elsewhere in the world. There was little sign that he is prepared to show the calibre of leadership that the governor of California, the mayor of London, the German chancellor and others are showing.
But history is not destiny. The power base of an environment minister, currently, hardly extends to whipping old-fashioned DTI mandarins into shape. That can change, of course. All things are possible, for a while, under new leadership. Even political courage.
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