Business as usual can't be the answer after coronavirus crisis abates

"Levels of air pollution plummet as Europe shuts down" the Financial Times reported on the huge impact of coronavirus.

Far fewer planes flying, many factories having shut down production, car journeys reduced by 95 per cent. The effects of lockdowns of citizens across many continents have shown up on satellite monitors from space, particularly highlighting that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels are the lowest for many years.

The emissions dip follows a huge drop in fossil-fuel-guzzling transport on land, sea and air and manufacturing shut down. Meanwhile, families locked at home are rocketing internet use to keep in touch or order stuff online, as well as to amuse themselves with films and facts and recorded tools for home schooling.

One systems stress indicator shows Netflix lowering its power output in Europe. No doubt it will do so in the USA to save considerable electric power.

Here in Scotland, SSE and Scottish Power must maintain supply, fix outages and provide new users, such as temporary hospitals planned to meet worst case scenarios of the Covid-19 casualties.

The fortunate news is that Scotland is producing 90 per cent of its domestic electricity needs by renewables. With a target of 100 per cent by late this year, just in time for the planned COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the Highlands and Islands are playing a big part at this challenging time.

Of course, the on-off policy twists of recent Westminster regimes dictates their reserved powers over energy. In Scotland we see particularly strong support among the public for renewables with wind, both on and offshore, gaining over two-thirds approval.

In stark contrast, the price of Brent crude, the offshore oil benchmark, is down to $20 a barrel as I write. Serious questions can be posed if at the end of the coronavirus catastrophe we return to ‘business as usual’.

No two national crises, nor indeed international ones, have the same track to the depths and on to a new normality. But we can learn from each and plot a better way ahead for this time of concern and economic paralysis.

Take World War II, as the UK, its Empire and Allies mobilised for total war, policies were adopted for survival and ultimate victory in a new era of popular means to convey information, education and entertainment through the wireless, magazines and films.

To build morale and engage the hearts and minds of service personnel and civilians, the Beveridge Report published in November 1942 became hugely popular. It identified the five great roadblocks to reconstruction, namely want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. It provoked strong feelings at home and at the front that ‘business as usual’ before the war should not be tolerated after victory.

Labour was returned to power in 1945 to deliver the welfare state and Churchill was thanked for his war leadership but his party rejected.

The Highlands had gained the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board, brainchild of Tom Johnston. He had been installed in the wartime coalition government as Secretary of State for Scotland. Electric power from the hydro dams in the glens was returned as light and power to homes there and across the north. It was a local version of the US New Deal’s Tennessee Valley Authority.

You can see what I’m driving at as we plough deeper into the coronavirus crisis. Our Scottish Government works in partnership with Westminster and our own local authorities, the Scottish NHS and community groups to grapple with the infection curve so that our services can cope.

But with time to think, as much in the way of regular work patterns are sundered, we can begin to probe what needs to be pressed on the law makers when they are able to meet again. Just before the lockdown, a simple shift away from bureaucratic and complex benefits and support for employers and employees was mooted by opposition parties in the Commons.

A Basic Citizens Income could be a lasting lifeline to the most vulnerable who find putting bread on the table an intensified struggle in these strange times of panic buying and supply line interruptions. Taxation to support it would be progressive. Boris Johnston did not agree.

I believe that our renewable energy sector must be another top priority to build a resilient and flexible supply of electricity, the clean power first made possible in the midst of total war in 1943. In 2020 a U-turn after four years of uncertainty was signalled by the Tory government to favour competition via its Contracts for Difference auction from onshore wind power.

Experience tells us that design, environmental assessment and getting planning consent all take time. Some say far too much time. Also, fabrication and construction to reach switch-on take more years, but with costs falling steeply for manufacturers we can but hope the Highlands and Islands will get more schemes up and running in appropriate locations.

Communities must be guaranteed this essential work and community benefit packages must be set at a far higher rate too.

One perceptive comment will suffice. Lex in the FT of March 28 concluded his air pollution calibrations thus: “It is cruelly ironic that the world is taking a breather even as coronavirus patients struggle for breath. When the epidemic abates, humans will be tempted to jump back on airliners and fire up foundries again. That would be wasting a crisis. We should not have to choose between strong economies and clean air.”

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.