Campaigners – including Natural Jersey, the National Trust for Jersey, Cycle4Jersey and Deputy Rob Ward – say that despite setting the environment as one of its five core priorities and agreeing that Jersey should aim for carbon neutrality by 2030, the government has not done enough to honour its commitments.
And they point to the failure of the States to approve, and a lack of ministerial support for, backbench proposals designed to strengthen environmental policy during the recent debate on the Government Plan as evidence of the inaction. The proposals included an amendment from Deputy Ward to provide unlimited bus travel for under-21s for £20 a year and another from Senator Kristina Moore calling for tax breaks on energy-efficient and green-energy products such as solar panels, which were both defeated. Both schemes called for money to be used from the Climate Emergency Fund, which is set aside for eco-friendly projects.
Criticism has also been levelled at Infrastructure Minister Kevin Lewis’s Sustainable Transport Policy for a lack of detail.
The government is now being urged to use the start of a new year to refocus on its environmental aims and begin to make progress.
Among those calling for action is Chris Perkins, chairman of Natural Jersey, who said that environmental proposals could not be dismissed ‘out of hand’ if the government was to fulfil its priority of valuing and protecting the environment.
‘I would say the government isn’t doing enough – I don’t think the funding for their own Environment Department is sufficient, which doesn’t help,’ he said.
‘You need a government that’s thinking long term, as investing now in environmental matters actually provides long-term gain, not just for the environment but for the Island as a whole.’
He added: ‘As we improve our environment we have a better standard of living, and also economically if we make these investments now we are going to benefit in the future.
‘The whole world is looking at making these types of sustainable investments and so to dismiss them out of hand because we haven’t got the money right at this moment is just not the right approach.’
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the National Trust for Jersey, Charles Alluto, believes the government is failing to communicate how it will meet its environmental targets – including becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
‘I think there was a clear absence of policies in the recent Government Plan in relation to the environment,’ he said.
‘It would be helpful if the government was able to give both the public and States Members reassurance that it was actively seeking to address those issues in a holistic fashion in the near future.
‘I don’t think they are effectively communicating their strategy, because then surely the likes of Rob Ward and Kristina Moore would not be seeking to table these proposals.
‘If the government is not going to accept these propositions, then it needs to make clear what the alternative vision is. I think at the moment there is a sense of frustration because no one is seeing what the alternative is while these potentially green propositions are failing.’
And Simon Finch of cycling advocacy group Cycle4Jersey said the government had ‘failed at every twist and turn’ to make meaningful progress.
‘While I can understand that they have been distracted by Covid, other businesses have been able to get on and deal with things – the government should not really have any excuse to have failed on this,’ he said.
‘They vote things down but they never really come out with progressive solutions and alternatives. It’s all very well saying that we are in a climate emergency but they actually need to do something.
‘If you are in an emergency, then you act like you are in one – you put plans in place and you start acting. You don’t just say “Oh, our house is on fire” and then keep watching it burn.’
Deputy Ward said he was concerned ‘no real action’ would be planned until the end of 2021.
‘We have missed an opportunity to take advantage of changes to people’s behaviour such as working from home, walking and cycling more,’ he said. ‘We have not produced any action from the Sustainable Transport Policy that addresses our love affair with the car, such as subsidies or free buses. I do not see an Island Plan developing that will build sustainable modern homes that will continually lower people’s carbon footprint and the cost of living.
‘There seems to be a huge reluctance to use any of the monies from the Climate Emergency Fund, which is too small, to create any action that will have an immediate impact – such as the removal of duty from biofuel.
‘We seem to remain in the planning stage and my genuine concern is that no real action will be planned until the end of 2021. Then we enter election year and nothing will be actioned longer term.’
