In Need Of Renewal: A Bad Month For The Green Economy
A couple of weeks ago a conference of nearly 2,500 scientists and economists congregated in Copenhagen to talk “climate”. Over three days they presented a picture, in grim and intricate detail, of just how screwed the planet really is; they painted a landscape of an unrecognisable Earth, which might be made manifest in our lifetime.
The conclusion seemed to be that all of our previous worst case scenarios needed to be… well… made worse. As Lord Stern, once the government’s chief climate change advisor, put it; “I think it’s very important that we understand the magnitude of the risk we are running… Inaction is inexcusable.”
So, in a truly bathetic twist, only a few days after the conference finished, Shell announced that they “…do not expect material amounts of investment in [solar and wind] going forward.” This message was echoed by EDF and E.ON when they helpfully declared that the UK’s renewable targets were unrealistic. And since then BT, Sun Microsystems and Centrica, amongst others have all revised their grand green plans.
Even companies with more genuine intentions have been scuppered: Tidal power gurus, Pelamis, were working on one of the world’s largest wave-energy converter projects for a Portuguese energy firm. But, the scheme now looks like a beached whale since the Australian company providing capital for the venture, went in to administration in early March.
Lord Browne, former BP head-honcho, summed up the current renewable energy situation, in a speech made at Cardiff University last week; “…the market will need a new strategic direction and a new framework of rules, laid down by government.”
So, until the Government coughs up some truly lucrative financial incentives, renewable energy will remain a luxury side-project for the big players.
Cue centralised financial action! Gordon Brown loves a hand-out doesn’t he? And, since the UK is looking particularly anaemic in these difficult times perhaps it’d be worth investing in an area with huge potential growth?!
Indeed, he is on record pledging that 10% of the rather large financial stimulus package would “…go to environmentally important technologies and potentially jobs in the green industries.”
How dismally predictable then, that the New Economics Foundation should reveal that in the recent “bank-bonanza super giveaway”, sorry, “stimulus package”, a paltry £105m was set aside for new green development.
That’s just 0.0083% of the UK’s GDP, when 20% of our GDP was given to banks alone. If that doesn’t sound pathetic enough, compare the £105m in new investment for one of the key issues facing the world today, to the £775m paid to RBS staff in bonuses. Yep, it’s that pathetic.
We’ve always known that you can’t rely on corporate enterprise to invest money on risky projects (well, unless they’re a bank). And companies of every shape and size have a fairly terrible track record of putting socially responsible projects before profit. Unfortunately, it seems you can’t rely on democratic leaders either, no matter how high the stakes.
Posted by Kieron Bryan in Green Rush | April 2, 2009 9:32AM |