His conference speech faced both ways on green growth, while previously he tried to blackball eminent figures from the Green Investment Bank's advisory board
Update: What's up with Vince Cable? That's the question greens are asking as the business secretary again displayed his inner conflict on green growth in his speech to the Liberal Democrat party conference here in Birmingham on Monday.
Earlier today, I revealed that Vince Cable tried to blackball one of the world's most eminent economists and also the Prime Minister's ambassador for UK business from the advisory board of the Green Investment Bank (see below). It was the latest in a string of obstructions that Cable, ably assisted by the trolls of the Treasury, had placed on the road to green growth.
In his speech, which was warmly but not rapturously received by his party faithful, he by turns embraced green growth but then blanked it in order to enhance his deficit-cutting credentials.
The question is this: can green growth, investment in clean energy and transport, boost sustainable economic growth and provide much-needed jobs? There's a very persuasive case that the answer is yes, especially if it puts the UK's record private savings to productive work.
But there's a deeply entrenched view, the orthodoxy in the Treasury, that green growth is not real growth, and should only be entertained if happier economic times. Cable seems caught awkwardly between the two.
So, on the one hand he praises in his speech the Green Investment Bank, the Green Deal to insulate homes, and the jobs provided by electric car plants. Then on the other, he says, defending the cuts many say are too deep: "The government's tough approach to deficit reduction is often attacked as ideological, as right wing. Financial discipline is not ideological; it is a necessary precondition for effective government. The progressive agenda of centre left parties cannot be delivered by bankrupt governments."
I think of this as the "grown up" argument: when it really gets tough serious politicians have to sideline all that fluffy greenery. It's common prejudice, but a ludicrous one in a finite, warming world.
Gratifyingly, Cable all but confirms his desire to be considered a grown-up: "Some [politicians] believe government is Father Christmas. They draw up lists of tax cuts and giveaways and assume that Santa will pop down the chimney and leave presents under the tree. This is childish fantasy."
Cable is also in a spin about regulation. Supporting business "means cutting red tape which is suffocating growing companies which create jobs," Cable was going to say, though the phrase was intriguingly dropped minutes before he spoke. Yet the final draft of his speech also said the opposite: "There are tens of billions of pounds of British savings in pension funds and insurance companies ready to invest in transport, energy, broadband and housing if regulators can ensure a reasonable, moderate return."
Why is Cable confused? Treasury and Business department officials are key, I think, in convincing him that green and growth can't really go together. Commenter Avenir below suggests Cable's former job as chief economist at oil company Royal Dutch Shell is significant. Whatever the reason, he is missing the economic chance to drive real, sustainable growth and the political chance to regain some of the LibDems distinctiveness on green policy. The refocus on green growth he has hinted at this autumn had better be good.
Original post: Vince Cable, despite the LibDem's environmental heritage, just can't stop trying to put the brakes on green growth. Surrounded by the "grown-ups" in the department of business, backed up by the trolls of the Treasury, he's been convinced that green and growth just can't go together.
The latest evidence, I can reveal thanks to sources inside and outside Whitehall, is that he fought fiercely to keep economist Lord Nick Stern and business big shot Bob Wigley off the advisory board of the Green Investment Bank. As we know, Cable tried hard to limit the GIB's powers and caved in to the special pleading of big polluters over the UK's national carbon budgets.
Why would he attempt to blackball Stern, one of the world's most eminent economists, and Wigley, the Prime Minister's ambassador for UK business? Most probably, I think, because the pair are heavyweights who believe the bank has a big role to play in the UK's transition to the low carbon economy, whereas Cable and Treasury want to limit its role. The former think intervention is necessary to correct market failures, the latter think intervention is a cardinal economic sin.
In the end, ministers at the department of energy and climate change, led by LibDem Chris Huhne, defeated Cable and Stern and Wigley got their seats.
The GIB has �3bn to invest, which is a lot, but unfortunately too little compared to the tens or hundreds of billions needed. A real bank could raise the money by borrowing. But the GIB Cable delivered is hamstrung and won't be able to borrow for years, despite the LibDem manifesto clearly stating it should be able to borrow from the start.
But is there a glimmer of hope, a hint that Cable and chancellor George Osborne are starting to see the green light? A recent story in the FT, headlined Osborne and Cable prepare for green moves offers cause for cautious optimism.
George Osborne and Vince Cable are drawing up environmental initiatives for the autumn growth review in an attempt to revive the coalition's "green" credentials.
The government has identified six areas it will address in the review ? the second this year ? in an attempt to stimulate the flatlining economy. "They are trying to pull out the stops to make this review much greener than the spring growth review," an industry insider said.
David Cameron's reputation as an environmentalist has waned since he entered 10 Downing Street, with economic growth taking precedence over green issues. But one government insider said: "There is a new recognition that the green agenda is a pro-growth agenda and . . . means jobs and investment."
Green and growth go together like strawberries and cream, as I have reported before. So we'll be waiting and watching for the those initiatives - on guard for greenwash.
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