Ignore the voices pitting energy against nature – we must deliver for both
Pylons, the Sizewell A nuclear power station and the Sizewell B pressurised water reactor, Sizewell, Suffolk, UK (Alamy)
4 min read
It is no secret that, in recent decades, Britain has failed both to deliver vital infrastructure projects and to protect the nature that makes our country so special.
We’ve allowed our natural assets and wildlife to fall into shameful decline, driven by years of underinvestment and ineffective protections. At the same time, stalled delivery of key infrastructure – from clean power programmes to public transport projects – has put us woefully behind in tackling the essential threat of climate change.
We’re all worse off as a result. It’s a key reason for which my constituents, proud of our natural heritage and deeply concerned by the damage being done to our climate, voted for change at the last election. And it’s a fundamental change in approach this government must now ensure we deliver.
That is why the Fingleton Review on nuclear regulation, and our government’s response, really matters. The review rightly identifies a regulatory system that too often inflates costs and risks when delivering vital clean energy infrastructure, while still failing to secure the best outcomes for nature. Faced with that reality, inaction cannot be an option.
The urgency of action could hardly be greater. If the threat of climate change to our natural world were not reason enough, the recent energy price shocks have shown once again just how exposed Britain is to volatility in global energy markets. If we are serious about protecting households and businesses from future spikes, we need to build the clean power system of the future – including new nuclear – faster.
But too often the debate about development has been framed as a binary choice between economic growth and environmental protection. This polarisation – sadly all too common in modern politics – is pushed by the loudest voices at either extreme. Those in the developer lobby who see any restriction or cost as an intolerable injustice. And those in conservation who seem more focused on conserving the process around rules and regulations than the underlying nature they claim to protect.
Such polarisation isn’t just unhelpful; it’s simply wrongheaded. The truth is that most people in this country, rightly, want us to do better for both. They want the clean energy, jobs and infrastructure Britain needs, but they also care deeply about the landscapes, wildlife and green spaces that surround us. They expect government to value and protect them properly.
Far from a have-your-cake-and-eat-it idealism, the government response makes clear how this win-win approach for climate and nature is possible.
Strong environmental protections are not an obstacle to growth and development; they underpin it. In practice, many of the delays facing major infrastructure projects stem not from environmental rules themselves but from how our systems operate. Poorly structured regulatory processes, a lack of clear guidance for and from regulators, and slow and costly legal processes all inflate costs and timelines for projects while doing little for our vital natural assets.
The government’s response takes a nuanced but pragmatic approach: refusing to bow to development ultras who would see vital habitat regulations cracked open wholesale, while prioritising practical changes that improve how the system works and changing guidance where outcomes can be improved. By tackling risk aversion, strengthening coordination and ensuring decisions are made more efficiently, we can start to remove the barriers that have slowed down crucial green infrastructure for too long without weakening the vital protections that safeguard our natural assets.
It will be down to government to ensure the details of the implementation deliver on the right and important principles set out today. But this is what serious government looks like: serious about Britain’s natural environment, serious about the existential threat climate change poses to it, and determined not to be blown off course by the extremes on either side of the debate.
After decades of a failed settlement for climate and nature, Labour is getting on with the job of fixing the system so Britain can build the infrastructure it needs in an uncertain world. We'll deliver clean power, strengthen energy security and protect the natural environment that underpins our long-term prosperity. It’s the change we were elected to deliver, and it’s change that can’t come soon enough.
Alistair Strathern is Labour MP for Hitchin
