Sir David Attenborough at 99: We cannot let him down, Ed Mili-wind
- Dan Sillett
- May 10
- 3 min read
Sir David Attenborough turned 99 yesterday – the same day that his new film Ocean was released to cinemas.
I severely dislike the cinema. Quite who enjoys hibernating in a dark hovel on a bright summer’s day, teeming with the crunch of eye-wateringly overpriced popcorn, is a complete mystery to me.
But to learn from Sir David, I will soon be enduring all of this without so much as a sliver of regret.
The man is the closest thing we’ve got to a walking, talking father of our Earth – and to still be beating the drum to save our planet at 99, Sir David is nothing short of a force of nature.
And yet, currently, we are on track to let him down. How?
Ed Mili-wind’s plans have blown up
The first problem is Labour’s infamously discombobulated Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband.
A lot happened on 8 May. Attenborough turned 99, Ocean was released, and Ed Miliband’s plans for an offshore wind farm were axed.
Let’s be clear about one critical fact. With Miliband at the wheel, we couldn’t get further away from hitting Labour’s target for clean power by 2030.
In March, the government trumpeted how renewable energy accounted for 50.8% of UK electricity generation. That might sound great, but electricity generation only accounted for 11.5% of the UK's total carbon emissions in 2023.
As per usual, then, the Labour government is fighting the minnow whilst the great white shark lurks in the shadows.
Transport accounted for a whopping 29% of UK carbon emissions in 2023, and buildings and product uses sit at 20% - combined, that’s as good as half.
But even if we just take transport – discounting the dismal fact that just 1% of UK homes had air-source heat pumps in 2023 – only 4.41% of the UK’s 34 million cars are fully electric.
This is not to mention the fact that charging an electric car will (as a minimum) cost you a coffee, a pastry, an aimless wander round a nearby retail park and a grand total of umpteen hours of your time – all to charge your battery to 29%.
And this is the crucial point. People want greening. They want renewable energy. They want to save their planet. But the infrastructure simply isn’t there at the moment. That’s what Ed Miliband should be sorting out – but instead, he’s wasting time on wind that has simply blown up in his face.
Sir David: the calm in the storm
All of this is unbelievably frustrating. And all of it means that, thanks to Ed Mili-wind, we are going to let the legendary Sir David Attenborough down.
Attenborough’s broadcasting career began in the 1950s. That means he has been working on this stuff for 70 years. Most people haven’t even been around for that long – let alone dedicating all that time to discovering and treasuring our natural world.
At this point, I expect you’re jumping up and down in agony – desperate to tell me that the success of Donald Trump in the US and Reform UK’s recent wrecking ball in the UK local elections shows people don’t give a damn about climate change anymore.
It’s true that 61% of Reform UK voters said the UK government is spending too much on reducing carbon emissions.
Is the tide turning against climate change?
I don’t believe it is. Yes, people are fed up with has-beens like Ed Miliband spending £8.3 billion to set up a useless quango like Great British Energy. Why not just spend all those billions actually tackling climate change, instead of costing taxpayers money for no gain?
But by stark contrast, everybody loves Sir David Attenborough. It is impossible to hate the man, in a world that is now unfortunately full of hate. People listen to what he has to say – not fools like Ed Miliband who the public refused to vote for as Prime Minister ten years ago.
Attenborough truly is the calm in the storm when it comes to climate change – and he continues to keep it relevant to everybody.
That’s why I’ll be getting over my dislike of the cinema to hear what the man, the myth, the legend himself has to say next.
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I’m all for a bolder, just transition – but frankly this analysis is a bit lacking in depth. The problem isn’t Ed Miliband's decisions so much as the government's (i.e. Starmer, Reeves et al.) obsession with looking “fiscally responsible” above all else. Obviously the discussions and disagreements between the party elite take place behind close doors, but there are fairly well established reports that Miliband has consistently tried to convince the leadership to embrace greater public spending and ambition on climate action. Without a shift in leadership thinking, Miliband’s hands are effectively tied; without large-scale public investment, the prospect of serious climate action remains limited.