Minister on a mission

One of New Labour's brightest, David Miliband is even touted as a challenger to Gordon Brown. Here he tells The Tablet's editor Catherine Pepinster of the greatest challenge facing the political world - and why he needs the help of the Catholic Church

These are febrile days for David Miliband. As Environment Secretary, he is the Cabinet Minister charged with dealing with the fallout from the recent Suffolk outbreak of avian flu, and, as one of the brightest and youngest Blairite members of the Government, he's being talked about as a challenger to Gordon Brown's succession to the premiership. So why in the midst of all this might his adviser approach The Tablet, suggesting that Mr Miliband wants to talk about climate change and religion?

The cynical might suggest that the Envir-onment Secretary is looking for a little personal profile-raising. Others might say that he is in search of new alliances, keen to get the Churches involved in his efforts to tackle climate change. Well, that turns out to be true. But it seems to me that there is something very intriguing about this particular tactic. For Miliband has woken up to climate change like a convert to a newly discovered religion. And it's occurred to him, armed with his new-found zeal, that people of faith are the ones to understand what he's got to say. To Miliband, climate change isn't just about science or the economy. It's a moral cause.

David Miliband is part of Labour's aristocracy. The son of the Marxist theorist and economist, Ralph Miliband, he seemed destined for politics. His academic credentials are textbook aspirant politician: a first in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford followed by a masters in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then came five years as a research fellow at New Labour's favourite think tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research, followed by three years in charge of Tony Blair's policy unit up until the 1997 general election. He spent the early years of the Blair administration heading up Number 10's policy unit before entering the House of Commons as MP for Sunderland in 2001. Miliband then swiftly ascended the ministerial ladder, first as a junior Minister of Education, the Cabinet Office, and in Communities and Local Government before becoming Secretary of State for the Environment eight months ago at the age of 40.

Environment is not one of Labour's favourite briefs. The most notable previous Environment Secretaries - Chris Patten and John Gummer - were both Tories (and Catholics, incidentally). You don't find many Labour politicians getting agitated about hedgerows, for example. But Miliband has spotted something about at least the climate change part of his brief: that given the fallout from global warming, the consequences for poverty are considerable. The people who are going to suffer the most are the ones with the least. This takes Miliband on to familiar turf - his belief that social justice is the pre-eminent aim of the Left. And this connection with poverty is one reason why the Church too seems to be waking up to climate change and its consequences - that it is about the common good.

This understanding of climate change is quickly apparent when I talk to Miliband. Within minutes he's pointing out that "climate change is not an environmental issue. It's an economic, social, cultural and a security issue. It is misleading to talk about, as Al Gore does, a planetary emergency. That almost makes it sound like it's not to do with humans, whereas it is human suffering that is going to be the consequence of the risks we take with nature."

The consequences are stark, according to scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicated recently that continuing emissions of greenhouse gases will cause world average temperatures to rise by up to 6.4C by 2100. But politicians have not yet fully convinced the public as to the action that needs to be taken. So given that Miliband himself has said previously that this requires a change in our way of life, what is he asking of people? Using different kinds of light bulbs, perhaps? Making fewer journeys by plane? Or something more profound? 

Miliband, being an astute politician, can spot the difficulties in advocating major change. But he does believe that dealing with climate change is about "how we live, and whether or not we are living out of balance". Something, he says, is out of kilter in the way we live and work and relate to the environment.

Could this mean, then, that Miliband is arguing against economic growth - a dangerous, vote-losing case for a politician? He argues for a different choice to be made, not so much between growth or no growth but between low-carbon instead of high-carbon development: "There is not a cat in hell's chance of getting India and China and African countries to be part of the climate change challenge if we're saying to them you can't have the growth that you've wanted."

Miliband is clear that the answer is not business as usual. There has to be change in the way we live, and soon. He is wary of arguments that this is about making the world better for future generations if it causes delay in taking action. "This is a more urgent problem than I thought. It is the most difficult collective-action problem that we have ever encountered."

Climate change debate focuses frequently on mitigation. The Stern Report, commissioned by the British Government last year to examine the economics of climate change, argued that the costs of doing nothing - of business as usual - are greater than the costs of mitigation.  And it is this, says Miliband, that makes climate change a much, much greater issue than a purely economic one, and makes it a moral issue. "This involves profound questions of equity. Because there is not just suffering, there is a sort of sum total of suffering: but there is also how the suffering is distributed."

Talk of moral issues bring us to the role that faith and organised religion can play in dealing with climate change. There has been clear conflict recently between religions and the British Government, firstly over faith schools and then over same-sex adoption. It can leave an impression that Labour's is a secular government, with little time for religious sensibilities. Yet Labour, particularly its biggest guns, have courted religions, with both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown articulating a desire to see faith play its part in the provision of welfare through voluntary organisations.

Miliband, a non-practising Jew aware of his own heritage, sees religions having a clear role in society and through their perspectives about man's relationship with nature. And then there is the message that religions convey of universality - all men shall be brothers, if you like. "This problem", he says, "does require some pretty profound engagement with issues of equity and responsibility that great religions are well placed to address."

Miliband's effort to engage with religious leaders on climate change has already begun. He has had talks with Bishops James Jones and Richard Chartres, who are among the most senior Anglican figures to voice concern about global warming. Then, late last year, Cardinal Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was in Britain to sign up to Gordon Brown's international project for vaccines, and stopped by at Miliband's office in Smith Square for a chat. He left behind as a gift a copy of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which Miliband proudly shows me (although if he had read it he would be less impressed; the environment gets one paragraph in 500 pages).

Miliband, however, remains keen to engage in further conversation with the Churches: "In a way it's easier to say because I'm not preaching this from a religious perspective but I can say that there is something discinctive about religions talking about the need for individuals, businesses and government to understand what they are engaged in here."

A key moment for that engagement will come later this year when the Vatican, under the auspices of Cardinal Martino's council and the Pontifical Academy of Science, holds its first summit on climate change. There has been talk in Rome that Gordon Brown will attend, no doubt fuelled by his warm reception at the Vatican last week, and Brown's involvement perhaps explains Miliband's aside that he's not sure he's "the right pay grade" to be the Minister attending from Britain. But Miliband perceives the Vatican as a good stage for the global warming message. "The summit's a very important innovation; it speaks to a Church with a global reach; it has got the potential to help, at best bring developed and developing countries together. And at a minimum to break down the ‘after you Claude' syndrome where developed countries say ‘we'll only do it if you it', and developing countries say ‘we'll only do it if you do it', and nothing happens."

Today Miliband has a personal message for Catholics: "Different people have different triggers for them to engage in a big way with the issue. For some it is watching Al Gore's film; for others it is a different commitment. Lent might provide people with a time for consideration and contemplation in this area."

High-powered Vatican meetings and ordinary believers' Lenten observances closely match Miliband's view that "you have got to be an internationalist as well as a localist to tackle this climate problem". No wonder he thought it worth getting the message across to the Church.