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To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2010.02121.x Byline: MATTHEW LOCKWOOD (1) Keywords: climate change; citizenship; public goods; populism; materialism; Miliband Abstract: Two different proposals for a political basis for a low carbon transformation in Britain have been put forward in recent years by the Miliband brothers. In 2006, David Miliband argued for a new 'environmental contract' between state and citizens, in the spirit of the post-war social contract. Last year Ed Miliband proposed a 'politics of the common good'. The historical sociology of citizenship suggests that the environmental contract approach will not work, mainly because of the pure public bad nature of the climate nature and the politics that flow from this. The 'common good' approach is more promising, but to make any headway, will have to tackle the strengthening of materialism and populism over the last generation. Author Affiliation: (1)Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

The article discusses how Brexit poses some immediate and direct challenges for the security and costs of energy supply. Topics discussed include development of the Internal Energy Market and the associated infrastructure in European Union (EU) member states; Great Britain dependence on energy imports, many of which come from or pass through the EU; and issues for energy and climate policy in a post-Brexit Britain.

Eight years after the launch of the Stern Review of the economics of climate change, a new major report on economic growth and climate change ( Better Growth, Better Climate) has been published by a Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, chaired by Nicholas Stern. While this comprehensive review of recent evidence has some overlap with the original Stern Review, it focuses more on the short-term costs and benefits of action needed to reduce carbon emissions in specific parts of the economy such as cities, energy and agriculture. Perhaps the most noted conclusion of the report is that policies which governments should be pursuing anyway, because they will reduce pollution, improve health, raise productivity and reduce congestion, will cut carbon emission by between 50 and 90 per cent of what is needed to get to a 2°C pathway. This is an important report that will have considerable influence, although it has had lower public visibility than the original Stern Review. However, it also points to the need for a better understanding of the politics of climate policy, and why the opportunities to adopt policies that have multiple long-term public benefits do not get taken. While Better Growth, Better Climate does have a chapter on the political economy of change, the analysis is limited, and could be deepened by bringing in the growing literature on the politics of climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]