Does Reform really want to up its game on nature? – Inside track

The Guardian reports that Ben Goldsmith “has been approached to write Reform UK’s policies on nature”. No one should doubt Ben Goldsmith’s credentials as an environmentalist, but nor should anyone doubt that a Reform government, unless it radically changes its approach, would be a disaster for nature.

This is partly because you cannot be good on nature unless you are also good on climate. The same goes for the Conservatives, who now oppose the climate policies they introduced in government. But Reform has a peculiarly punkish hostility to any mention of climate change or “net zero stupid”.

Beyond climate, Reform’s 2024 election manifesto pledged (irony alert) to reintroduce EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) style direct payments to farmers and to scrap 6,700 retained EU laws, including environmental laws. It is a vision for the low standards UK that Remainers feared in 2016.

We must double down on a fair transition
It could be that Reform wants to up its game but, on the basis of what it has said publicly, anyone looking to it for positive action on nature, water, chemicals or the circular economy will be very disappointed. And let’s remember that the Trump administration, so admired by Nigel Farage, has been a disaster for nature. As we approach the election, Reform is bound to come up with better rhetoric and even some good policies on nature. But environmentalists should sup with a very long spoon.

At the same time, we must distinguish between the understandable concerns of Reform voters and those who cynically stoke those concerns. When Matthew Goodwin, Reform’s candidate in the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election says that net zero “increasingly feels like a pet project among an out-of-touch, morally righteous and self-serving elite” we need to understand why that rhetoric has power. We must double down on our commitment to a fair transition that benefits everyone, as well reminding people why we have net zero: to help avert catastrophic climate change.

More empathy is needed
And we need, too, to understand the power of Reform’s opposition to pylons, wind farms and new homes in the Green Belt. People care about places and landscapes. Change is inevitable and often desirable, but it can be painful. Let’s recognise that and not dismiss opponents of development as selfish or ignorant Nimbys. More empathy and less condescension is in order.

Finally, this is Race Equality Week. We are a racially diverse country but the make-up of those enjoying the countryside does not reflect that diversity. This has prompted a wealth of initiatives in recent years: the Mosaic project, Black2Nature, Black Girls Hike, the National Trust’s Colonial Countryside, the UNHCR’s Moving Mountains (“empowering refugees through nature”) and many more. As the RSPB says in launching its recent Race Report, “we can’t save nature without involving people from all backgrounds”. But how would all these great, ‘woke’ initiatives, and the belief that nature and the countryside are for everyone, fare under a Reform government?