“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”. This Martin Luther King quote was used by Conservative peer Baroness Stroud to introduce the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), which launched in March.
Set up by the owners of GB News and involving “senior leaders from politics, media, culture, business, and academia”, ARC claims that it will address the six “fundamental issues of our time”, including “energy and resources” and “environmental stewardship”.
In reality, ARC appears to be the latest attempt by national populist forces to shape culture and politics.
And as climate change has been swallowed up by the “culture wars”, ARC’s advisors include some of the world’s leading opponents of climate action.
In her launch blog, Baroness Stroud gives an indication of where the alliance stands on climate change.
She states that “we risk driving policy interventions to address environmental concerns without having an honest conversation about the trade-offs for the poor at home or in developing and emerging nations”.
The notion that green reforms unduly punish the poor is a common refrain among those who oppose climate action.
In reality, poor and indigenous groups in developing countries will be hit hardest by the impacts of climate change, while those suffering from poverty at home have seen their energy bills soar as successive governments have failed to implement green reforms.
And ARC’s anti-green credentials are further exposed by the makeup of its key members. The alliance’s political ties are extensive, with its advisory board featuring a number of prominent politicians from the UK and abroad, as are its ties to climate science critics.
