Lindsey German on climate chaos and capitalism’s inability to deal with it

Temperatures are at record levels. Europe’s major capital cities – London, Berlin, Paris, have highs of top 30s or even over 40 degrees. In London there have been two record-breaking heatwaves in a month. This is early in the summer, before the traditionally hottest months of July and August. Schools have been closed, rail journeys curtailed, offices shut, crops destroyed, open-air theatre and concert performances cancelled, health services stretched.

This is the climate emergency that campaigners have been warning of for years. For many of those years, they were ignored or ridiculed, while climate change deniers were feted by the BBC and scientific evidence ignored. Then when governments did take more notice, they agreed a series of international policies which were always inadequate, too often evaded, and under constant political attack.

Now however – in the face of such overwhelming evidence that we are now at burning point – governments are showing themselves incapable of dealing with this huge crisis, and policies are moving in the opposite direction. Hence the row even within the Labour Party about London’s third runway, or about drilling in the North Sea. Hence the rolling back of deadlines for electric car provision, or the lifting of building regulations to help developers, or the cutting of grants for heat pumps and insulation.

The harsh truth is that capitalists will always override concerns on climate change and safety more generally in the interests of profit. Any attempt to restrict the ‘freedom’ to make money by the state is constantly lobbied against and very often defeated. This disregard for the safety of the population is justified in the name of competition and the needs of big business.

This is why the current emergency is being dealt with so inadequately. It should be cause for an immediate series of crisis proposals put in place, similar to those during the Covid crisis. These include maximum work temperatures, cool spaces, top temperatures for schools and nurseries, provisions for the homeless, help for the disabled and vulnerable, water points throughout the country, the opening of private air-conditioned buildings to the public, emergency shelters for people whose housing is overheating.

These are just the bare minimum to relieve the current situation. But it is obvious that much more fundamental changes are needed. These will require much greater levels of public investment, including in liveable and ecologically-friendly housing, schools, hospitals, libraries and other buildings. It will also require investment in sustainable cheap public transport as the alternative to private cars.

With the partial exception of London and the centres of other cities, public transport is simply unavailable to millions of workers. Where it exists, it is expensive, unreliable and does not recognise shift or Sunday working. Bus routes are repeatedly cut, or are so convoluted it takes an hour to do what would be a short car journey. Where it doesn’t exist, it forces workers to pay for expensive private car travel in order simply to get to work.