Empty Barges
It is difficult not be ambivalent about the Government’s reactive (at this late stage, it can hardly be called pro-active) stance on the very real threat posed to our national and global economies by the reduction in available carbon resource.
On the one hand, Lord Mandy did actually say a few things at the Low Carbon summit which business leaders should take note of – “Low carbon is not a sector of our economy; it is, or will be, our whole economy and a global market.” Never a truer word said by a politician and his words were echoed in dramatic chorus by his fellow cronies… but far from coming to the party with a raft of solid and commercially viable suggestions, solutions or even ideas, all the day consisted of was a repeat of the opening line in varying formats and to announce its “Low Carbon Industrial Strategy” which will ‘look at’ ways to help Britain become a world leader in low carbon ‘stuff’.
Then Lord Hunt, a man who has ‘championed’ more political causes than I care to remember, jumps on to the bandwagon with Joan Ruddock, Minister for Energy and Climate, to make us sleep easier in our beds by announcing that they are going to revise the definition of ‘green’ so that we know exactly how green our supplier of all things really is.
But then she had to spoil it all by adding, “Where we can’t avoid emissions, offsetting offers a means of taking responsibility for them”… uh, I don’t think so! The only way to take proper responsibility is to take measurable steps to reduce your carbon usage and the sooner we disavow ourselves of the idea that carbon offsetting is a solution, the better.
Why, oh why can’t the politicians just accept the fact that we are running out of energy, we are pumping too much CO2 into the atmosphere and we need to return to basic business values? Since we are all becoming more and more aware, in the business community, of the growing scarcity of resources, this should not be a message that scares the politicians… after all, their re-election is going to be judged on something else than environment. The money they are spending on committees to look at how green the green labels are, developing a green kite mark and all the rest of the well-meaning but, ultimately, pointless initiatives serve only to prolong the inevitable; they won’t have a sustainable economy to govern at this rate.
It strikes me (though I have been known to be wrong!) that the more noise the politicians emit, the less we should take note and the more we should focus on taking responsibility, accountability and control of our businesses in order to re-instate a sustainable economy and secure growth for our respective commercial endeavours. Some of you are already doing this (and mostly just get on with it quietly); those of you that are still prevaricating need to get on with this now.
What’s really worrying, however, is that the Tory barge is pretty empty as well but appears to be making no noise at all these days. Answers on a postcard from Millbank?
