The return of the Parlimentary Labour Party

I started this blog as a way of addressing my personal dis-connection with the Labour Party that had developed over the last 5 or so years. I was a keen Labour activist for many years, however like many people I lost faith with the Labour leadership over the Iraq war. However it was not just the leadership, one of my most depressed days was when the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party voted in favour of military action, for me this was very hard to take. I felt that many members of the PLP were more concerned with maintaining power than doing what was right.

I am very pleased to say that in these increasingly testing times the world appears to be changing and the rebel Labour MP is once again appearing to have an effect. With respect to the environment and sustainability the government’s positive change in direction has been achieved in a large part due the actions of MPs who are pushing government policy through amendments and rebellions. These have included:

  • The 56 Labour MPs who threatened to vote against the Climate Bill unless emissions from aviation and shipping were included.
  • The Labour MPs who campaigned and pushed for the introduction of feed-in tariffs, which resulted in the amendment to the Energy Bill that was voted on by 96 Labour MPs. The government’s proposals in this area still need some tightening up (see my post of 1st November) but it is progress in the right direction.
  • And now the 41 Labour MPs from across the country have put their names to a parliamentary early day motion tabled by John Grogan, MP for Selby in North Yorkshire, calling on the government to rethink the third runway and instead start a consultation on a new national planning policy statement on airports and high-speed rail. There appears to be growing resistance and agitation from MPs and some members of the cabinet members against both the third runway at Heathrow (see the Guardian article MPs revolt over third Heathrow runway).

The Parliamentary Labour Party appears to be finding not only it’s voice but also it’s collective vision over this most important of issues. This is definite progress, the PLP is now starting to play it’s proper role within Parliament in challenging the executive when it is not acting consistently, encouraging it when it lacks ambition, and calling on it to act with greater vision and leadership.

Much more of this and democracy might just get worth the vote!

www.workofchange.co.uk

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Feed-in Tariffs – Come on no half measures

In the government’s recent move to a more positive environmental attitude it is disappointing that the eventual amendment to the Energy Bill to allow Feed-in tariffs was so weak .

Feed-in tariffs are absolutely essential to encourage individuals and communities to get involved in generating renewable energy and selling this back to the national grid. Feed-in tariffs have been significant in enabling Germany to achieve over 14% of all energy generated coming from renewable sources (the UK currently produces about 2%).

Burradale Wind Farm

Burradale Wind Farm Shetland Islands

I am a member of my local Transition Town movement and we are very keen to set up a community renewables project. For us to do this we must have clarity about what price we will get for the electricity we sell back to the national grid, this guaranteed price must be long-term in duration. The governments current amendment gives us no clear time-table for the implementation of this scheme and no confidence in it’s duration.

Come on the Climate Bill and the Energy Bill are hugely positive however steps forward and give us very positive leadership, however we have a massive change to if we are avoid dangerous climate change.

Let us have no half measures.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to toughen up its amendment to include:

  • Renewable schemes under 10 megawatts – a 10MW upper limit could work without damaging investor confidence in large scale renewable schemes which would continue to be covered by the existing Renewable Obligation.
  • A duty on Government to introduce the scheme within one year
  • The basic elements of a feed-in tariff – guaranteed contract length and an obligation on the government to set the tariff levels for different technologies.

For further background reading see also People-power a step closer in energy bill from the Guardian.

www.workofchange.co.uk

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Green New Deal – a white paper for a green economy

This week the Independent on Sunday reported that the government plans publish a white paper in the new year laying out plans for a major green programme of investment to create jobs and support Britain to climb out of recession. Included in these proposals will be investment to; expand renewable energy, and the development of more sustainable transport options by introducing electric cars. Whilst this is really encouraging we will need to wait to find out the scope of these proposals. The idea of a Green New Deal is gathering significant ground both at in the UK and internationally. It certainly seems to be an idea that is of the time.

Back in July when the New Economics Forum published this document the The Green New Deal, the world seemed very different.

At the time they said:

“The global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’. It is a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by an encroaching peak in oil production. These three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression. To help prevent this from happening we are proposing a Green New Deal”.

The key recommendations of the report were:

* massive investment in renewable energy and wider transformation in the UK
* the creation of thousands of new “green collar” jobs
* making low-cost capital available to fund the UK’s green economic shift
* building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture and union.

This document was and remains very prophetic,  and is well worth a read.

www.workofchange.co.uk

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Gordon Brown – well done!

Well what a difference a month makes, I have been not able to post to Work of Change for the last month as I have been working on other projects, but what a turn about:

  • A global economic melt down
  • An economic recovery package for the banks

Labour in government has handled this well, although if ever this there was a crisis designed for Gordon this was it.

But the change in response to climate change was less expected.

High spots over the last month:

  • The creation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, with the appointment of Ed Milliband as the first climate change secretary appears to be an excellent move.
  • The Climate Change Bill, now committing the government to an 80% reduction on emissions by 2050 and including emissions from aviation and shipping. Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said: “The final piece of the jigsaw is in place. The world’s first climate change law will also be a world-class climate change law” – well done the rebellious Labour MP’s and welldone to all the people who hassled and pushed to make this change.
  • A government commitment to a feed in tariff guaranteeing rates for renewably produced electricity. This has made such a difference in Germany to the creation of a vibrant local model for getting communities involved in the production of renewable energy.
  • The Carbon Trust’s launch of a £26m project to develop transport fuels made from algae by 2020, this will be the largest publicly funded project of it’s kind in the world and has great potential to place the UK in a leadership role in this highly significant source of second generation bio-diesel.
  • A new initiative to promote green motoring announced by Geoff Hoon by the promotion of ultra low carbon demonstration projects.

But possibly for me what is also encouraging is the increasing government sympathy for a Green New Deal that would create a framework for government intervention designed to boost employment and channel public investment, and thus tie both economic, social and environmental recovery squarely together.

However we have a huge distance to go, the separation of government words and actions is massive, our current levels of production of renewable energy is woefully low, and there is the matter of a return to Coal, and lets not mention Nuclear energy, but all in all, credit must be given where it is due.

Thank you Gordon, the Labour party in Government, and Us – this is progress.

www.workofchange.co.uk

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Effective Environmental Action – Political Stalemate

Why is it not possible to establish decisive government action on the environment in the UK?

I believe we are caught in a stalemate:

  • The public appears sceptical but open to a change of behaviour and is angrily looking to government for action which it is then likely to resent.
  • Every political party has articulated a move to a more sustainable approach to government but has backed away because of; the apparent suspicion of the public, the fear of political capital being made by one of the other parties, or active resistance to change from their own party members.

How can we break through this impasse?

I feel that there are 3 possible scenarios:

‘Cometh the Man’ (or woman)

One of the leaders chooses to takes a personal leadership role regarding climate change. I feel this is possible but it will need to be based on personal conviction and at great political risk. David Cameron attempted this, but i believe backed away from the position when he attracted criticism from his own party rank and file.

Much as though I would like to see Gordon Brown take leadership on this issue, I really don’t believe he has sufficient commitment to these issues. However, a replacement Labour leader such as David Milliband could do this. He would need to be very open to the national and global problems we face and effect some kind of ‘political healing’ with the electorate. He would in effect need to atone for the actions of both Blaire and Brown. This is possible but unlikely.

Nick Clegg from the Liberal Democrats is already trying to perform this role although the distribution of Lib Dem support and the UK electoral system makes the prospect of real power very unlikely.

Sorrow and re-connection

There is a global event that re-connects people with both their compassion and anxieties about global sustainability. This is obviously not a strategy that we want to happen.

Bottom up change

There appears to be a widespread frustration with our top-down governance system across the our society. This is apparent from posts from blogs from all political persuasions. Again and again people say that there needs to be change and it should come from the ‘grass roots’ or it needs to be ‘bottom up’. Top down solutions and grand plans are rejected as unworkable and more of the same.

I think the NGO’s could support people to have a more visible influence within the political system. The Green Standard who published ‘Fit for the Future’ is made up of 9 leading environmental lobby groups who collectively claim to have 5 million supporters. This is a huge number; all three of the major political parties have approximately 560,000 members between them. The difference between the Labour and Conservative vote was 789,524 in absolute terms in the 2005 election. If half of these supporters could be supported to speak to all the parties collectively about their desire for action then this deadlock could be broken.

There is unfortunately one more possible scenario.

Do nothing

National inaction is likely, however I feel that in all honesty inaction will result eventually in one or more of the other 3 scenarios occurring, it can only be a matter of time.

www.workofchange.co.uk

Fit for the future – Environmental performance of our political parties

Today 9 of the country’s most significant environmental lobby groups published their annual review of the environmental policies and actions of the three main political parties. This report entitled ‘Fit for Purpose’ Fit for the Future found a decline in the commitment of all three parties to environmental issues over the last year.

Steve Hale of the Green Alliance said on behalf of the Green Standard;

  • ‘The government’s approach is contradictory and incoherent; this is epitomised by John Hutton’s failure to rule-out new unabated coal power stations which will undermine the government’s own climate change targets.
  • The Conservatives are strong on presentation but weak on substance; they must develop firm policy commitments if the reality is going to match their rhetoric. David Cameron, for instance, missed out climate change and environment in his statement in May on priorities for a future Conservative government.
  • The Liberal Democrats’ traditional leadership on the environment has waned over the past year; Nick Clegg has not yet set the pace on environmental issues expected from the Liberal Democrats.’

The report is a follow up to the report ‘How Green are our parties’ published in September 2007 which has been discussed has been discussed in previous posts in this blog. ‘Fit for the Future’ is a really useful and accessible report that summarises the parties positions with respect to environmental issues very concisely.

The findings of the report are not surprising all three parties have shown a chronic lack of leadership over the last year in the face of rising prices and the credit crunch. The sustainability crisis that we face over the next century caused by climate change, peak oil, population growth, deforestation, and pollution will sometimes be experienced directly as environmental crisis but will be often experienced through widely fluctuating prices of commodities, and increasing economic instability. Focusing on the instability will be only addressing the symptoms rather than addressing the causes. This is where we are now, the parties each sacrificing the decisive action to create long-term solutions, by jostling with each other for short term public approval. This is not leadership, it is big brother!

In the report a number caught my eye, the nine agencies involved; the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the Friends of the Earth, the Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the Woodland Trust and WWF, claimed between them to have over 5 million supporters. I don’t know the detail of how they came up with this figure, but it is a huge number. I believe the three main parties have approximately 560,000 members between them. This eclipsing number of people supporting action is also evidenced by the recent Mori Poll about public attitudes to climate change discussed in a previous post that said that 68% of the public wanted more government action about climate change.

How do we get help these people to become visible in their views? How do we support people to translate this pressing anxiety about the future into a call for action today?

One practical thing we can all do is write in support of ‘Fit for the Future’ to the party leaders in support of their statement:

The environment groups behind this report call on the three party leaders to make clear commitments to action in their party conference speeches:

  • Yes to delivering 15 per cent of UK energy from appropriate renewable sources by 2020.
  • Yes to a massive uplift in energy efficiency through major public investment and action to radically improve the energy performance of existing homes.
  • Yes to putting in place policies that will value, protect and enhance the natural environment and secure the benefits it provides.
  • No to new unabated coal power stations.
  • No to expansion of airport capacity at Stansted or Heathrow.

You can email your support for this statement by following this link What can you do?

www.workofchange.co.uk

World views and political sense-making

In my last post I briefly introduced the concept of world view.

A world view describes a coherent framework that enables complex and sometimes contradictory pieces of information and experience to be assembled into a structure through which people can make sense of the world.

Center Leo Apostel suggested that a world view has 7 components:

1. A descriptive model of the world
2. An explanation of the world
3. A futurology, answering the question “where are we heading?”
4. Values, answers to ethical questions: “What should we do?”
5. A methodology, or theory of action.: “How should we attain our goals?”
6. An epistemology, or theory of knowledge. “What is true and false?”
7. An etiology. A constructed world-view should contain an account of its own “building blocks,” its origins and construction.

World views can create a logical and self referring structure that bring group members together, that shape common sense, and make outsiders seem illogical, irrational and sometimes willfully stupid.

I have never voted Tory and grew up not knowing really what to say to one, if I am honest. In the last few days I have spent some time looking at the Telegraph comments pages and a range of Conservative blogs. Reading these posts it was really interesting and a bit un-nerving, I found a lot of people talking about events I recognised but starting from an almost entirely strange point of reference from where I stand. They disagreed with each other but from a common frame of reference. After reading for a while I felt cross and angry that so many so obviously intelligent people could miss the most important issues every time. The truth is they are not, they just don’t share my world view – just my world.

My reason for writing this post is not to be critical of the Tory world view, it is to express my real concern about building a framework in which we can really support dialogue, cooperation and shared action.

www.workofchange.co.uk

Poltical grass roots change – yes please, but whose!

Reading the political blogs, papers, talking to friends, and colleagues there seems to be large amounts of anger with the government, however behind this there also seems to be a high level of dissatisfaction with the overall political system. Again and again people say that there needs to be change and it should come from the ‘grass roots’ or it needs to be ‘bottom up’. Top down solutions and grand plans are rejected as unworkable and more of the same.

I feel exactly the same, the same tired divisions and solutions seem dull and empty, the media political knock about seems too loud, dull, insincere, and stupid. What I want is something uniting, common sense, simple, passionate and inclusive. You know something I can get behind, that will give me hope, give me a role, help me to feel we are getting somewhere.

I am not alone. Last night I was reading messages posted at the Telegraph site and at the Daily Maybe, the content of the views expressed were as far apart as possible but underpinning this was the shared message, the government can’t get more rubbish but there has to be a more ‘real’ way of doing politics.

Yes grass roots, yes more ownership, but what does this actually mean? There seems to be such a strange contradiction. More ownership must mean more consensus, more knowledge, more control, agreed unique solutions, which are owned by the people who they effect. The forming ‘world views’ in these different communities; Tory and Green for example are each becoming more solid and coherent. However the content of these worlds are completely out of phase with each other. To make matters worse the many problems that these worlds face are complex, systemic, and inter-connected. They cannot be resolved locally, they can only be solved by widely adopted coordinated action. On one hand we want to belong to exclusive alliances of the willing and on the other all we need to solve problems that require us all to behave in a similar way.

‘You are all individuals’ said Python’s Brian of Nazareth – ‘Yes we are all individuals’!

www.workofchange.co.uk

Climate change, man made? Cooperating to sustain our future.

I would like to think about some comments I have received about the nature and political importance of Climate Change in response to my post Climate change, change management and the need for political consensus, I would like to provide my views about some of the really useful comments made.

The Climate is changing

I believe that our climate changing, I believe that it is changing rapidly because of human behaviour.

I believe this for many reasons but I am willing accept the evidence of the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change who in their 4th Report restated these conclusions:

  • Warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
  • Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (human) greenhouse gas concentrations.
  • The probability that this is caused by natural climatic processes alone is less than 5%.
  • World temperatures could rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 °C (2.0 and 11.5 °F) during the 21st century.

In many ways it doesn’t matter whether or not climate change is caused by human behaviour, what matters is :

  • What do we expect the impact of this climate change on our environment to be within 10 years, by mid century, and the by the end of the century?
  • How do we expect these changes to impact on; our own lives and those of our families, the resilience of our communities and society, and the global community?
  • Are our political priorities right today to address the above 2 questions?

But climate change is natural and it has changed many times?

This is absolutely right, such an event occurred 55 million years ago in the Eocene period when global temperatures increased by up to 7 °C. This may have occurred due to the heat generated by tectonic activity that caused the creation of the Himalayas. This event was very rapid in geological terms it may have taken 100,000 years. This event caused a sharp extinction event that was significant especially in the Oceans, it also created a high turnover of mammal species on land, it was however not an extinction event close to the order that caused dinosaurs to die out.

The Eocene event was quick by geological terms, what is happening now seems to be occurring on a timescale that can be measured by human lifetimes. In previous climate change events species of plant and animals had time to adapt to manage the change and even then the result for many was extinction.

What do we expect the impact of this climate change on our environment to be within 10 years, by mid century, and the by the end of the century?

  • This is a difficult question to answer decisively but again the IPCC predicts that sea levels will rise between 0.2 and 0.6m by 2100, there is additional concern that the Greenland Icesheets are melting at an increasingly fast rate so sea levels could rise faster than this.
  • The IPCC also suggests that there is high probability there will be frequent heatwaves, heavy rain, drought, increased frequency of tropical cyclones, and extreme high tides. These effects will not be distributed equally across the globe.
  • This is a significant problem when we consider that 634 million people live within 30 ft of sea level, and 2/3 of the world’s cities with over 5 million people in them live within low lying coastal regions.

However Climate change is not the only problem we are facing:

  • Population growth – there are 6.7 billion people estimated to be living on the planet. By 2042 global population is projected to be just under 9 million.
  • The development of the Asian economies especially is causing the consumption levels of individuals to grow significantly thus amplifying the effect of population growth on the use of world resources.
  • Peak oil – The estimations of when the oil reserves will peak and then decline range from 2005 to 2020. However in July 2007, the International Energy Agency predicted an oil crunch by 2012. ‘Oil looks extremely tight in five years time’, said the IEA’s Mid-Term Market Report, which predicted ‘prospects of even tighter natural gas markets at the turn of the decade’. This will obviously have a significant impact on the global food market both because of the global food distribution system and also the production of fertilisers required for our current system of intensive agriculture that require oil as part of the production process.
  • Over the century we also have the collapse of bio-diversity and collapse of global fisheries, due to pollution, loss of habitat and over exploitation.
  • Alongside this also needs to be considered the impact of the global economic system on debt, economic development and money supply.

How do we expect these changes to impact on; our own lives and those of our families, the resilience of our communities and society, and the global community?

Considering the list above it is hard to know where to start. Well if I am honest I can’t help starting at a personal level, with my children 2 of whom are still at school. I am really grateful that we live in the UK, are above sea level and away from the ocean, in a close rural relatively affluent community. However my work is with very vulnerable people who have disabilities who rely on a welfare state and resilient communities to live successful lives.
Focusing at a wider scale I am struck by the fact that all the factors listed above are inter-related, for example:

  • The people in the poorest areas are most likely to be effected by climate change.
  • Population growth is not equal and rates are highest where economic and social development is poorest, thus exaggerating global inequality.
  • What impact will this growing inequality have on global social justice and cooperation. Won’t this increasing level of global inequality lead to increased anger, protest and violence?
  • Responding to climate crises will take greater levels of energy usage at a time when available sources of easily transportable fuel supplies will become in ever shorter supply.
  • Won’t competition for ever shrinking fuel, food and water resources will lead to conflict and global self interest rather than cooperation?
  • Won’t we face immigration issues of a scale that are unprecedented compared with the past especially in the wake of ecological or social crises? We live in racially mixed societies now, will our social cohesion deal with the moral decisions that these issues will entail?

It seems to me that the debate about whether climate change is man made or not does not matter much. What is more important is what we do about this massive list of interconnected challenges to our global civil society that we in the UK depend on.

What should our political priorities be right now to equip us for these challenges?

In discussing this I want to use the list that was offered to me in a comment as things that need to be tackled before climate change:

  • The economyAbsolutely but our economy has to deal with the issues of peak oil, a crisis in our food system (linked to oil, fear and speculation), and adapting to climate change. It is through addressing these issues that we can stimulate our economy. Germany, China, India, and increasingly the US are doing just this by investment in renewable energy at an impressive scale. The depression hit economies of the West in the 30’s re-started themselves through wartime industrial production, we have a similar opportunity with the renewables and energy efficiency given political vision and solid commitment.
  • Inspiring people with aspiration through education - Education must prepare people for the world they will live within. The world our children and young people will lead will be very different from ours. Our education system must change if it is to prepare people as effective actors in this new world. A detailed understanding of planetary life systems, pure and applied science,  communication technologies, citizenship, responsibility and ethics will all be necessary to navigate this world.
  • Getting our population under control - This is absolutely essential and practice has shown us that the only effective way of doing this is by addressing issues of poverty and education especially of young women.
  • Regaining our national sovereignty to take our own decisions - Again this is key, this chaotic world if it is to become stable  must be made of sustainable but interdependent nations, regions, communities and individuals. Our extreme global division of labour has made us vulnerable. Our food system is a perfect example of this at all levels, food production has been exported abroad where costs are cheaper, international surpluses have been removed, speculation on food commodities has become acceptable, citizens have become consumers and have lost their ability to grow, and even prepare unprocessed food stuffs.
  • Slimming down our obese public sector - Personal responsibility and community cohesiveness has declined and this has been compensated by the state and corporations. The challenges that we face will only be addressed by reversing the trend from consumers served by a ’service provider state’ to citizens working in partnership with local and national government to create sustainable lives and resilient communities.
  • Coming up with sensible health provision services - Yes we have some key challenges here, we have a ageing population and a declining tax base to fund it. We are moving from a society where the many support the few, to one where the many will need to support the many. We will need to come up with a more locally owned, more health promotion orientated model for it to remain sustainable.
  • A fair taxation systemOur tax system must be open, transparent and fair. It should tax activities that are harmful and incentivise activities that are helpful to a successful society. Taxation should also be used as a tool to ensure that prices of commodities represent their true cost economically, socially and environmentally. Thus the consumer can make more informed choices about the consequences of their actions.
  • Restoration of personal and social responsibility - Yes a sustainable society is all about personal and social responsibility, the current challenges will only be met in a society where people recognise the consequences of their own actions and work together to come up with solutions that work for them. This may well need to be true in such disparate areas as food and energy production.
  • Removing those who preach hatred of our country from our schools, the media, the public sector, and religious establishments - Our nation is beautiful, we have had a history based on courage, conviction, innovation and tolerance, however we have lost our way, our instincts and judgements have been dulled by consumption and the promise of easy affluence. We have no agreed goals to pull together for, when we consider ourselves we see only our failings and we blame these on each other. We must work together to help us find collective solutions to these shared challenges and support each other in making the changes that are necessary.
  • Restoring our standing and reputation in the world – you cannot act globally without this - We will restore our standing in the world when our collective national action advocates the creation of a fairer more just world. We need to work tirelessly at home and abroad to find solutions to the problems we all face. This will not be done through speeches and conferences, but will be done through water wells, mosquito nets, debt relief, the sharing of skills, technology, and collaborative research.  A practical first step would be to ensure that we meet our commitments to the UN Millennium Development goals and commitments about debt relief.

Yes there are many issues we will need to tackle before climate change is addressed, but it must shape our responses to this world that Geoffrey Sach suggested is ‘Bursting at the Seams’.

As I have said before, the environment, social justice, and self interest are now issues which are colliding in front of our eyes. We have little time to respond.

www.workofchange.co.uk

Labour in government is failing to prepare the UK for sustainable global economy.

There was further evidence of the failure of the Labour in government in preparing the UK for a positive role in the economy of a sustainable future world.

Ernst Young’s Renewable Energy Attractiveness Indices published on the 19th August said:

  • China displaced the UK in the top five most attractive countries for investment in renewable energy for the first time in the indices’ five-year history.

Jonathan Johns, head of renewable energy at Ernst & Young, said of China:

  • “Investment in China has been boosted by the government’s energy policy, which secures renewable energy as a vital and important part of the country’s energy mix. China’s stellar growth in renewables can also be attributed to the speed at which it has built up its supply chain capability, to the point where it is likely to have nine gigawatts of manufacturing capacity in a few years,”

While in the UK the delay of the Energy Bill has caused delay that has caused the UK’s ranking to fall. There could be a further 2 years of inactivity while further consultation takes place, this will leave the UK just 10 years to develop the infra-structure to meet it’s renewables targets in 2020.

Jonathon Johns said of the UK

  • “To make the UK a world leader in attracting investment in this sector, and to avoid it slipping further down the index, the government needs to consider creating tangible incentives for investors, following the lead of Germany and the ambition of China.”

The UK now lies in 6th position after the US, Germany, India, China and Spain.

Today the Guardian reported that a demonstration of Carbon Capture and Storage will start at a coal fire power station in Germany next week. This 1.6MW plant will capture 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, will compress and bury it 3,000m below the surface in a depleted gas field, about 200km from the site. Although a full scale system remains years away this is a major step forward.

Meanwhile the Labour government remains committed to new coal fired power stations with no solid plans for any carbon capture and storage.

The policy framework, economic incentives, and business environment for green technologies are no longer novel they are becoming a reality across the developed world, global investment will increasingly follow these technologies. We have excellent renewable resources in the UK however we are slipping behind because of the government’s lack of clear direction and decisive action.

Our government is failing to provide the leadership we need to move forward, this is not just about responding to the climate realities of the future it is about responding to the economic realties of the future.

www.workofchange.co.uk