Really good that the Green Ribbon Political Awards have been resuscitated – after quite a long break – and yesterday I handed out the Awards to the deserving winners at the House of Commons.
Some will undoubtedly be seen as fairly predictable: Caroline Lucas MP, as Parliamentarian of the Year; Unilever, picking up the ‘Business Commitment to the Environment Award’, and HRH The Prince of Wales as the most inspirational figure internationally.
But others definitely weren’t, including Martin Wolf of the FT (one of the most influential journalists in the UK today, and one of the very few at that level who consistently raises insightful and urgent concerns about the likely impacts of accelerating climate change on the global economy), ClientEarth (for a brilliant campaign forcing the UK Government to address its responsibilities on unacceptably high levels of air pollution in the UK), and Chris Packham (for the best environmental campaign by a journalist, exposing the horrendous slaughter of migratory birds in Malta).
By contrast, there was just the one Grey Ribbon Award for the most environmentally destructive politician – which the judges unanimously agreed should go to Eric Pickles. This is his citation, worth reading in full:
‘The MPs on the panel abstained from this vote, as they did not approve of the category. The rest overwhelmingly voted for one candidate among a strong field of ministers from the “greenest government ever”. George Osborne, Owen Paterson and Nick Boles all received earnest consideration but none even came close to Eric Pickles.
The judges were impressed by the sheer weight of the Communities Secretary’s all round contribution to undermining the Prime Ministers stated ambition. He has dismantled energy efficiency measures, playing a big part in turning the flagship Green Deal into a shambles. He has called in and turned down many applications to exploit wind energy. He was one of the architects of the national policy Planning Framework which – in spite of being modified in the face of public opposition – has put villages all over the country under siege by speculative developers. And his brief stewardship of the Government effort to combat flooding last winter ended in farce when he attacked the Environment Agency, which was dealing with it on the ground.
No-one has apparently tried harder to earn this award, and the judges could not bring themselves to deny it to him.’