History teaches us why we can’t afford to cling onto fossil fuel technology - Andy Brown

Anyone who tries to tell you that Britain can cling on to fossil fuel technology is risking making the same mistake. Especially if they tell you that we don’t need to invest in change because they are not doing much in China.

The reality is that despite all the unpleasant features of the dictatorial Chinese government that country is showing very little sign of hesitating to move to more advanced technology and our country is at severe risk of being left behind if we don’t follow suit.

Last year there were more electric cars sold across the whole of the huge Chinese market than ones powered by expensive petrol and diesel. China also installed more solar panels than the rest of the world put together. The majority of their cities have had entirely electric buses supplying reliable and cheap public transport for many years now.

It is now commonplace for people in the West to argue that we need to protect ourselves from unfair competition from Chinese companies which are selling products way below the price that we could compete with if we produced things locally. Yet it will be very hard to keep out products if they are cheaper, more efficient and offer new features no matter how high we raise the import barriers. There is a good quality electric car on sale in China for around £8,000.

When this country was the most efficient manufacturer in the world we used to be enthusiasts for free trade. Now that others have overtaken us in many areas of technology it is an illusion to believe that we can shut out their innovations with trade barriers.

The way that China moved from being one of the poorest and most backward countries in the world to one of the richest was by understanding that some things are done well by private industry whereas other things need the active involvement of the state. Too much or too little of either tends to produce very bad results.

The Chinese government for all its considerable ills makes conscious choices about investment in industry and in the infrastructure that supports it. Very few of its highly efficient manufacturers achieved their dominance without hefty government support at the early stages of their development and whenever change was needed.

The same active role for government was in evidence when it came to transport. They already have well over 40,000 killometres of high speed rail track in China. The British government has yet to construct a single mile of fast rail links in the north of England.

The good news is that it simply isn’t the case that Britain can’t compete with China or South East Asia across every area of technology. There are many areas where we have the advantage or could relatively quickly get ourselves back to having it.

The bad news is that we are still suffering under the legacy of an ideology that regards government intervention to support investment as some kind of crime against the one true God of pure free market economics.

Medical technology in this country continues to be an area of success. Not least because it gains from the knowledge coming out of our top class universities and the existence of the NHS. Creative industries such as gaming, music and film also perform well. We continue to have the ability to do well in cutting edge technology where inventiveness is more important than access to capital.

Yet in so many areas of modern business an emphasis on short term shareholder payouts crowds out investment and the focus is on dividends instead of on the long term best interests of the business or the community.

Too much of our economy has been orientated to meet the convenience of financial speculators and hedge funds. There has been far too little investment in science and industry or the facilities which new knowledge based businesses need to expand rapidly.

If taxes have to be raised then they need to come from levies on financial speculation, fossil fuel companies and property owned by the ultra-rich, whereas expanding businesses that are helping to build us a future need to be supported with energy and determination.

It remains to be seen how brave the Chancellor will be when it comes to making decisions about directing funding to support genuine modernisation of British industry. Will she have the courage to place enough taxes on financial transactions and fossilised oil companies to provide money for the necessary changes?

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley in North Yorkshire.