Tag Archives: sustainability

Steve Mason

A different story of hope for Liberalism in the 21st Century

By Steve Mason | Fri 18th September 2026 - 6:45 pm

The failures are plain to see. Rivers are treated as drains. Homes are left exposed to floods and heat. Public services are forced to pay tomorrow for damage that should have been prevented today. Families face higher bills, weaker services and a natural world in retreat, while Westminster still asks its narrowest question. Has GDP gone up?

GDP is not the enemy. It measures economic activity, and that still has value. The mistake is treating this narrow measure as the test of national success. A business would not sell its factory roof to flatter this year’s accounts while exposing its machinery to the rain. Yet that is what politics does when it runs down the living foundations of our prosperity and calls the transaction growth.

It is time to put GDP back in its place. Let it count activity but not define purpose. Our economy needs a compass, not just a speedometer. It must ask whether growth is widening freedom, strengthening communities, renewing the natural systems on which life depends and increasing the wealth we hold in common.

This is the question for Liberal Democrats. Are we brave enough to tell a different story of sustainability and hope? The liberalism Britain needs now is not thin individualism, nor a faith that remote markets or centralised ministries will save us. It is freedom rooted in dignity, community, stewardship and democratic power. Clean water, secure homes, healthy people, thriving nature, decent work, trusted services and power in people’s own communities are the footings on which liberty stands.

There is no liberal future on a polluted, depleting island. When rivers are unsafe, landscapes are stripped, neighbourhoods are vulnerable and services are hollowed out, people do not become freer. They become more exposed. That is not liberty. It is abandonment dressed up as choice.

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Rodrigo Palmer

Post-growth ecological liberalism: A regenerative care economy within planetary limits

By Rodrigo Palmer | Mon 27th April 2026 - 11:24 am

Whether our economies can absolutely decouple from environmental harm at the scale required to mitigate the worst consequences of the socio-ecological crisis is a central debate in sustainability academia. Whilst green growthers and techno-optimists consider these achievable, ecological economists and post-growthers like myself are much more sceptical.

There are many peer-reviewed articles on both sides, with the post-growth movement gaining significant gravitas in economic and policy circles. A global survey of 789 climate policy researchers revealed increased scepticism towards green growth approaches. Following these findings, a vision for how an ecological, post-growth liberal society could work is increasingly necessary.

Our growth economies are designed primarily to generate surplus capital efficiently to fulfil societal needs and wants. An economy designed in such a way is doomed by a hamartia: a constant structural dilemma. Balancing just economic development with protecting necessary ecological spaces, all whilst not aggravating the social-ecological crisis, is developing into a near-Sisyphean task.

Such a dilemma would be eased significantly in a post-growth liberal economy, because it would be designed for ecological stability. The economy would be regenerative by design, with the adoption of the circular economy and technological developments in resource efficiency being core to its success. Whether growth is desirable would be subject to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis, considering both social and environmental factors.

A post-growth liberal economy is grounded in the precautionary principle in environmental law. Whilst the debate of whether absolute decoupling remains ongoing, urgent action is required now. The socio-ecological crisis is much too pressing and urgent to warrant absolute certainty in this central academic debate.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 17 Comments
Paul Reynolds

Economic growth in 2022 – root of all evil or economic nirvana?

By Paul Reynolds | Mon 21st November 2022 - 1:04 pm

Since the summer of 2016 the concept of economic growth has been less prominent in UK political discourse, until now. The objectives of the constitutional changes in 2016, involved a greater emphasis on nationalism, judicial independence, EU-independent trade policy and reductions in immigration – all at the expense of economic growth as a core aim. The Home Office became ‘top dog’ in the UK administrative system, displacing the Treasury. Although not expressly stated, ‘managed decline’ became an implicit civil service aim, not seen since the 1970s.

Perversely, it was anti-EU factions in the Conservative Party that brought economic growth onto …

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Michael Taylor

Opinion: Sustainability, where do we go from here?

By Michael Taylor | Tue 22nd July 2014 - 9:28 am

Economy-in-the-UKOur party is not addressing continued economic growth. Our leaders talk about growth solving our problems and recovering pre 2008 living standards, rather than about creating prosperity without growth. Growth through conspicuous consumption is still being sold as the road to recovery.

There are three real stumbling blocks:

  1. High living standards and rising prosperity extolled by almost all parties are only possible by expropriating the living standards of the world’s poorest.
  2. We depend heavily on the rest of the world, especially developing countries, for food and are still reducing farmland in the UK.
  3. Our energy supplies depend on unstable regimes in the Middle East and Russia and we have not begun to address self sufficiency in basic energy.
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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 52 Comments

Britain can’t cook, won’t cook. Should we care?

By Andy Boddington | Fri 2nd August 2013 - 7:05 am

A year ago we set up a tiny community garden on the verges of our barren car park. Not a great deal grew in the first season, but what we produced we tried to give away, sometimes without success.

“What will I do with it?” asked J as I offered him a bunch of dirty carrots. A few days ago, I got a glimpse inside J’s fridge. Everything was pre-packed, microwave or oven ready, accompanied by step-by-step instructions. J doesn’t cook and he is not alone.

A review for Defra by Best Foot Forward highlighted that one in six …

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Nick Clegg MP

Nick Clegg MP writes… Rio+20: We made progress

By Nick Clegg MP | Tue 26th June 2012 - 9:53 am

The dust has now settled on last week’s Rio+20 summit and I’m keen to look back at my initial goals and to let you know what we achieved in terms of meeting them. Of course the final text was not all we would have wanted had we been able to write it ourselves; however I am pleased to be able to report that all three of my priorities have been included in the final text of the document that was agreed last week.

  1. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We agreed to launch a process to develop these, to ensure that countries

…

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Norman Baker MP

Norman Baker MP writes… Helping people make smarter transport choices

By Norman Baker MP | Fri 25th May 2012 - 10:20 am

Transport accounts for around a quarter of the UK’s emissions, but people want to travel and they want to travel further and more often. Good transport infrastructure is also essential to a well-functioning economy, so how do we square the circle?

The Lib Dem approach is to say that it isn’t about choosing between growth and carbon reduction: it’s about reducing carbon emissions from transport. That’s why the Lib Dems in Government are overseeing the of spending £2.4bn on transport improvements; the biggest rail expansion programme since Victorian times; electrification of over 800 miles of railway compared to the 9 miles …

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The Voice

That’s the way to do it! How Liberal Democrats made the running on the Localism Bill

By The Voice | Wed 9th November 2011 - 10:15 am

Annette Brooke MP and Lord (Graham) Tope are the Lib Dem Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, and led the Lib Dem response to the Localism Bill. Here they outline what they, working with colleagues in the party and many beyond, helped achieve.

Last night the Localism Bill completed its final stage in Parliament and is set to become law when it achieves Royal Assent next week.

As Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, it has been our job over the last ten months to lead on the Bill for the party. We’ve helped shepherd it through both Houses of Parliament, and have led a Lib Dem team that in many ways has made the running on the Bill.

We’ve had strong engagement with Coalition ministers, who engaged with us constructively, particularly Greg Clark, Baroness Hanham and our very own Andrew Stunell, who was very helpful and willing to work together with us to improve the Bill considerably.

Colleagues in local government were also a constant source of help and good ideas, which never ceased to better inform our Bill team as the process went on.

Where we started from: “a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice”

When it was first introduced, I think many Liberal Democrats would agree that it was a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice.

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