From the first day Andy Burnham came into office, climate scientists, campaigners and some of the ordinary people surviving through this summer of extreme heat began to wonder when he would start to talk about the climate crisis. Up until this week, many held back from criticism. After all, he had only been in power for a couple weeks; it felt far too early to start to judge and call him out on it. But as we watched the footage of terrified horses galloping over cindering heathland in the New Forest while yet another wildfire took hold, it no longer felt too soon to wonder. Now people are asking aloud: why is Burnham ignoring what is in front of his face – the devastating impact of climate breakdown on the country and its citizens? “As the prime minister tours every region of the UK, it will be hard to miss the impacts of this extraordinary summer: wildfires, drought, parched farmland and people struggling to work in extreme heat,” said Emma Howard Boyd, the former head of the Environment Agency who is now a professor in practice at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. She went on to call for Burnham’s government to “act with urgency” to prepare the country for a hotter climate, by cutting emissions while investing in the resilience of the country’s homes, infrastructure, farms and public services. Mike Childs, the head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said it was time for Burnham to “end his silence on the climate emergency” and urgently tackle the causes and consequences of global heating to protect communities from increasingly frequent and extreme weather. And yet Burnham seems to feel no urgency. There has been no speech utilising his trademark down-to-earth and compelling approach when it comes to the climate emergency. There have now been five extreme heatwaves this summer. On Wednesday, Burnham called a Cobra meeting, days after the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, delivered his “reality check” outlining the multiple threats the extreme weather poses to our safety, our food and water supply, and our way of life. But what has emerged from the meeting? A possible ban on disposable barbecues, and even that is not a firm commitment. There has been no comment on the climate emergency that is powering the extreme heat. Burnham is enjoying a popularity bounce, which has put Labour in front of Reform UK for the first time in more than a year. What better time, many argue, to ignore naysayers who suggest that to talk about global heating is to set off a culture war? What better time to get on the front foot and address the impacts of human-induced climate change on the livelihoods of ordinary people, the environment and the cost of living, while outlining what he is going to do about it? As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham was not shy regarding the climate emergency. He committed to the city becoming carbon neutral by 2038 and argued that local government lacked many of the powers necessary to deliver the pace of change demanded by the climate challenge. In his first 25 days in No 10, Burnham has found time to blame his generation of politicians for the major dereliction of duty in failing to tackle social care over many decades. Yet he has avoided any comment about the failure of the same political class over the same period of time to ensure our hospitals, schools, public buildings and homes were adapted to cope with the sort of extreme heat the country is now experiencing. The result of those years of neglect is that: a key government department in charge of protecting our food supplies and environment has just 20 staff working on climate adaptation; nurses are fainting as they treat patients in A&E departments receiving record numbers of summer patients; school teachers have taught in classrooms where temperatures are over 40C (104F); and farmers are warning of low crop yields, livestock feed shortages and potential domestic food price increases. All of these things are happening to the ordinary people that Burnham has famously championed throughout his political career. In order to thrive, they require a healthy environment, a safe and cool place to work and the assurance of affordable food on their plate: yet it is these which are increasingly threatened by the impact of the climate emergency.
