As the details of new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet trickled out this week, I became increasingly depressed. Carolyn Flint, the existing Energy & Climate Change shadow minister and Ed Miliband, who was once DECC minister, refused to serve Corbyn. So new face Lisa Nandy (right) was announced in their place.

Whereas many on the left cheered due to her opposition to fracking, I did a quick Google of her name and ‘climate change’ and found nothing of substance. The ‘They Work for You’ website ranks her voting record on climate change as ‘ambiguous’. She has no prior front bench experience. Her boss’s position that we should open the coal mines again and tackle climate change is hardly a coherent position.

With the Conservative party busy dismantling the subsidy system for renewables, while boosting those for oil and gas, investor confidence in the renewable industry has plummeted. On the blue side, only maverick MP and London Mayor wannabe candidate Zac Goldsmith is pushing for the green economy.

Of the traditionally pro-environmental parties, the Greens only have one MP and the Lib Dems eight.

This is not good.

My only optimism is that history tells that politicians have generally followed the green economy, not led. It is up to business to deliver.

Photo by NCVO London used under creative commons licence.