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June 2007 Archives

June 1, 2007 - Wasting away

To Peterborough, to mark 15 years of the City as one of the four Environment Cities. A lot of good things done during that time, but a long way still to travel.

Waste inevitably pops up as one of the biggest issues. Peterborough has the second best recycling performance of any comparative local authority in the UK- at more than 40%. That’s fantastic. But it generates more waste per person than most other places in the UK! Which neatly makes the distinction between waste minimisation and recycling: however good your recycling may be, the primary focus here has to be on reducing total waste per person.

There are many people in local government who think that this just can’t be done – but they’re wrong. There are huge variations in per capita waste levels from one local authority to the next. And specific policy and education interventions lie at the heart of those differences.

At which point in the discussion the work of the redoubtable Professor Hosking is raised to demonstrate what local communities can do, without any official backing from government, given the right kind of leadership. When the news broke of the success of Modbury in Devon in eliminating the use of all plastic bags (with all 43 shopkeepers and traders signed up to a joint campaign), the Professor was overwhelmed with requests for advice as to how to do it from all over the country.

Politicians constantly underestimate just how much people are prepared to do in terms of addressing their own waste responsibilities, and the ingenuity with which they’re prepared to set about doing something on that score – just so long as they’re given a chance.

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Posted on June 1, 2007 3:07 PM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

June 8, 2007 - A Branson pickle?

Richard Branson had one of those days yesterday. He flew back from Africa (doing stuff with one of his charities out there), launched a new Virgin train which will now run on 20% biodiesel, lobbied Gordon Brown (who was launching it with him), and then descended on the Cheltenham Science Festival to be subjected to an hour’s worth of questions from the Green Movement’s very own Jeremy Paxman (that’s me, apparently, according to David Cameron – but that’s another story!) and several hundred festival-goers keen to work out what’s put the green in the Branson brands.

Anyone feeling a bit gloomy about climate change and the state of the environment should be obliged to spend an hour with Richard Branson. This man does answers to problems like Cassandra did apocalyptic prophecy. Inadequate efforts on my part to flag up growing concerns about today’s biofuels bonanza (especially the really barmy stuff going on in the United States or Indonesia) were politely batted away as issues that could be dealt with relatively easily. I ended up feeling as if my reservations were somehow unworthy of me!

I’m not quite sure whether or not we really “nailed it” – the pros and cons of the biofuels debate are immensely complicated, and there are a lot of very sophisticated arguments along the way. But it was certainly uplifting stuff!

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Posted on June 8, 2007 2:50 PM | | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

June 13, 2007 - China: kids and carbon

I wouldn’t want anyone to think this blog is going to be population-obsessed, but I just have to record “a major, major step forward” for bloggers seeking to influence governmental negotiating positions.

Just four weeks ago, I suggested that the Chinese government should face down George Bush’s endless complaints about China doing nothing on climate change by referring to all the billions of tonnes of CO2 not emitted into the atmosphere because of China’s one-child family policy. Four weeks on, there’s Ma Kai, head of China’s State Economic Planning Agency doing exactly that on the margins of the G8 Plus 5 Summit in Heiligendamm last week:

“Without China’s strict family planning policies, the country’s population would have increased by 138 million since 1979, resulting in an extra 330 billion tonnes in emissions.”

The exceptionally sharp-eyed amongst you will observe that my diplomatic triumph is marred by a bit of a cock-up in my calculations. I initially quoted 400 million “births averted” as a consequence of China’s one-child family policy, on the basis of previous information picked up on a visit to China – a rather large discrepancy which I’ll need to look in to! But I rather assume that Mr Kai should know.

Unfortunately, the Chinese delegation at Heiligendamm had little else to offer by way of encouraging news on climate change. The International Energy Agency forecast earlier this year that China will overtake the US as the world’s largest emitter of CO2 by the end of 2007 – emitting more than 6 billion tonnes in comparison to America’s 5.9 billion tonnes.

Simply parroting its mantra of “growth first, climate change second” will, from that point on, sound more and more ludicrous.

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Posted on June 13, 2007 11:53 AM | | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

June 21, 2007 - List your flights!

Thanks to Chris and Caroline for the challenge ('Flights of fancy?'). No problem about that (see below) as I believe any activists / champions in this area need to be up front about their own carbon footprint. As you’ll see, I fly a lot. 21 times in the last year, in fact, or 42 flights in total.

There are no personal flights included in the list below, as I have taken none, but as Founder Director of Forum for the Future, Co-Director of The Prince of Wales’s Business & the Environment Programme – both organisations having a substantial international reach – and Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, with a predominantly UK remit, there are many times in the year when I have little choice other than to fly.

There’s rather more too it than that. I have spent 35 years getting quite good at articulating this sustainability stuff and (hopefully) inspiring others to get things sorted out themselves. I am nearly 57 years old now, and have decided to just ‘go for it’ for the next three years, to help press every (influential) button I can during that time. So, once I have judged that an opportunity is worth pursuing (strategically), then how I get there is a secondary – albeit still very important – issue. When I can use video-conferencing, I do. When I can use the train in the UK, and time allows, I always do. I don’t have a car.

Do I feel guilty about all that? Absolutely not. Do I feel responsible for making sure that decisions are taken conscientiously and that the resulting impacts are managed properly? Absolutely! That’s why all three of the organisations mentioned above take offsetting extremely seriously – not as a perfect solution, it has to be said, but not the kind of flaky, guilt-assuaging cop-out that so many people think offsets represent.

JP Flights: July 2006-June 2007

UK
Aberdeen x3
Belfast x4
Edinburgh x2

Europe
Oslo x1
Amsterdam x2
Zurich x1
Crete x2
Malaga x1
Berlin x1

International
Hong Kong / Beijing x1
Houston x1
Vancouver x1
Cape Town x1

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Posted on June 21, 2007 12:53 PM | | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

June 26, 2007 - The Ashden Awards

For me, last week’s absolute highlight was the Ashden Awards event for Sustainable Energy – now in its sixth year. I may be biased (well, I am biased, as I’m a Trustee of the Awards!), but it’s hard to beat an evening where all one has to cope with is a succession of inspiring stories from “energy entrepreneurs” of every description from China, Peru, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Tanzania, Laos, the Philippines and, of course, the UK.

To take one of these stories - Sunlabob Royal Energies Ltd in Laos. Most of the rural poor are not connected to the grid, and are not likely to be in the foreseeable future either. Firewood and kerosene are the fuels of choice – or of necessity at least. Sunlabob have come up with this amazing scheme to rent out home-voltaic systems to Village Energy Committees (as well as portable solar lamps for individuals) - at less than the equivalent price for kerosene. The scheme involves just 73 villages at the moment. But every village could and should be benefiting from this, and it’s hoped that Sunlabob may well be able to provide answers to much of that need.

gore_ceremony1.jpg

Imagine eighteen stories similar to that one, and you get a feel for the evening. Al Gore graciously did the honours – including a miraculously short speech – and for the sixth year in a row every single person went off home asking themselves why all these wondrous renewable technologies aren’t serving the needs of billions of people rather than just tiny minorities.

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Posted on June 26, 2007 3:18 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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