All the major political parties bow to the knee to the environment, and demand that their troops do the same.
Labour Party members tend to think social policy more important.
The Tory party rank-and-file are sceptical, but will stay in line for the duration of the campaign.
The BNP is in full denial and the Green Party is in full throttle.
But will the leaders of the two major parties rise to the challenge of both climate change and peak oil, and address the key policy issues? Or, as defenders of the globalisation model, will they choose to focus on just one element of 'the triple crunch'?
Although they are often viewed as separate and potentially competing threats, the triple crunch of financial meltdown, climate change and peak oil has its origins firmly rooted in the current model of globalisation. In essence, the steady de-regulation of finance from the late 1960s onwards was boosted by the City of London's 'big bang' in 1986.
This financial de-regulation facilitated the creation of almost limitless credit at high, not low, rates of interest. This in turn, fuelled irresponsible and often fraudulent patterns of lending; inflated bubbles in various assets, which in turn powered environmentally unsustainable consumption.
This credit boom hit the buffers of insolvency and unrepayable debts on what we think of as 'debtonation' day, 9th August, 2007, when the banks suddenly fully understood the scale of debts on the balance sheets of other banks.
In the same year, single natural disasters struck body blows to entire national economies, and rising oil prices began to alert the world to the potential scarcity of oil.
At two ends of the climatic spectrum, Australia saw a prolonged drought decimate its domestic grain production, and Mexico saw floods wipe out the agricultural production of an entire large state. In the oil markets, growing numbers of whistleblowers pointed to the probability of an early peak in production, and possible subsequent collapse of production.
Of particular concern is the view of the International Energy Agency that an oil crunch is likely in 2012, and the view of the former head of oil exploration and production at Saudi Aramco – a man who until 2004 presided over the largest reserves in the world – that global oil production is already on a plateau and will never rise much above the current level of 85 million barrels a day.
As we enter the 2010 general election campaign the oil price has again started rising – at the time of writing to 85 dollars a barrel. The full impact of these events and the way they are likely to interact does not appear to have been fully understood by the leaders of Britain's political parties, or conveyed to their voters.
While Labour's fiscal interventions of the past year – bailing out banks unconditionally, cuts in VAT and motor vehicle 'scrappage' schemes – were not always wise and environmentally sustainable, they made one powerful point. They demonstrated the validity – and benefits – of action by public authority.
Their weakness was to mainly stimulate consumption and speculation, in a manner that will not address energy or climate security, but be temporary, inadequate and inefficient. President Obama's stimulus package was similarly celebrated, yet the increase in core public expenditure in 2009 was only $50bn (equivalent to about £5bn in the UK) a smaller increase than in 2008.
The great part of the stimulus in both Britain and the US has concentrated on tax and transfer schemes, not productive investment in the Green New Deal needed to de-carbonise our economy, and render it sustainable.
These schemes have made very little difference to 'fundamentals', to the prospect of a sustained revival of private sector activity, to a substantial reduction in unemployment, or to the investment needed to tackle security threats such as climate change. The 'recovery' that is presently celebrated is politically convenient but will not endure.
This is regrettable. We should not be condemned to repeat the failures of the past. The case for a 'green new deal' grows more pressing every day. It is today our only means to prosperity – and to sustainability.
Ann Pettifor is a founder member of the Green New Deal Group and fellow of the New Economics Foundation.
