Turning widespread climate concern into political impetus requires cross-party, local, tangible 'eco-popularist' action, not reliance on the Green party or on reality
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/zoewilliams. "For the future of green politics, look beyond the Green party | Zoe Williams | The Guardian." October 14, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Most people in Britain want climate action, but anti-climate populists like Reform are winning the arguments locally by tapping into money worries and fear. The answer isn't just a stronger Green party; every party's environmentalists need to offer concrete, local, coherent plans that make people's lives better and give them a sense of agency, instead of abstract doom or waiting for events to prove the deniers wrong.
Conclusion
Environmentalists and leaders across all parties, not the Green party alone, must find language and ideas that turn broad public support for climate action into concrete political impetus, by addressing the cost of living, precariousness and fear of the future with local, tangible, coherent plans, rather than relying on abstract global warnings or waiting for events to discredit climate denial.
Premises
- Rightwing populists (e.g. Reform UK) are winning local arguments against climate action, including scrapping climate emergency declarations, and no climate disaster will divert them from this crusade.
- About 68% of people want action on climate change, but no single party in modern British politics can represent that majority, so the Green party alone cannot create an equivalent eco-populist wave.
- Populist anti-climate narratives (climate action is too expensive; net zero is an elite luxury belief) are self-fulfilling: the more they are repeated and win locally, the more people believe they are widely held.
- Climate action will only take hold if it addresses the conditions populists exploit: the cost of living, a sense of precariousness, and fear of the future that climate events intensify. Piecemeal measures like bus fare freezes do not address these.
- Abstract, global framings of climate disaster foster despair and cede agency to populists, whose proximate enemies and visible street presence convey power. Local, tangible actions that are broadcast and celebrated, and a coherent plan, counter this.
- Incoherent policy (defence spending over heat pumps, new fossil-fuel exploration alongside promises of good jobs) reinforces impotence, and Reform's co-opting of 'resilience' language shows that unaddressed gaps will be exploited by false promises.
Assumptions
- Public support for climate action (68%) is real and latent, and can be converted into political action if framed appropriately.
- Populist success is driven mainly by narrative and emotional framing rather than by genuine policy preferences of voters.
- Local, tangible, positive actions can be effectively communicated and will outcompete populist narratives.
- Cross-party cooperation on climate is feasible among non-Reform, non-Conservative parties.
- Exposing populist hypocrisy is ineffective, so a positive alternative is needed instead.
- Eco-popularism (policies that improve lives and are therefore popular) is distinct from and preferable to eco-populism.