Watching the news over the past few years, it is easy to believe that all young people are militant environmental campaigners. We all want net zero now, consequences be damned. In this situation, the prospects of conservative environmentalism are laughable. Surely, we conservative environmentalists should throw in the towel.
Hold on for a moment. Before we give up, let’s look at the state of play. According to a 2019 poll, 41% of 18–25-year-olds supported Extinction Rebellion’s traffic disruptions. However, 42% opposed them: hardly overwhelming support. By 2023 support for Just Stop Oil (very much the hardline successor organisation) had fallen to just 26% of 18–24-year-olds, with 48% opposing them.
What does this all mean? Rather than demonstrating sustained support for the most disruptive and extreme organisations, support for Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and similar groups is fast declining. It has been a truth throughout history that young people are more likely to support the extremes. Environmental extremism was popular five years ago, but it ebbed as new protest movements and new issues became more prominent.
In the wake of the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the cost-of-living crisis, young people have seen the fragility of our global economic system. They see the need to have strong failsafe measures. Even in 2019, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit branded their timescales unrealistic. We can only imagine what the state of the British economy would have been if we had to deal with these global crises whilst embarking on a highly economically and socially disruptive path.
This does not mean that the young no longer care about the environment. Only in June, a poll commissioned by the Wildlife Trust showed that large majorities of the public believe all the main parties are doing poorly on river pollution (78%), nature loss (71%), climate change (69%), ensuring communities can benefit from nature (65%), and supporting sustainable food production (63%). However, this does shine a spotlight on a path for conservative environmentalism. We do not need to persuade young people away from zealotry. We need to convince them that our environmental policies are better than the alternatives.
Admittedly, we did this poorly during the last Parliament, as CEN’s own Kitty Thompson explains, the Conservatives ‘could have gone further and faster’. We also failed to highlight our successes: whether it be the success of the Blue Belt Programme to protect marine environments, our transformative, environmentally-friendly farming schemes, or our creation of the strongest sanctions regime for sewage spills in British history.
Over the next five years, we need to highlight the successes of the last Conservative government and produce realistic policy proposals. If we do this, we will create a new generation of conservative environmentalists.
Views expressed in this blog are those of the author, not necessarily those of the Conservative Environment Network. If you are a CEN supporter, councillor, or parliamentarian and would like to write for the CEN blog, please email your idea to info@cen.uk.com
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