It seems that the government’s promise of investment in the development of green technology has all been hot air. In the race to secure the future of a green technology industry, the UK could now be on track to lose.
Both the coalition and the previous administration had committed to huge expenditure in the area of green technology to deliver a high value economy and create thousands of highly skilled ‘quality’ jobs. Recent days however have witnessed a certain amount of backtracking on the vision to put the UK at the forefront of a green industrial revolution.
Now Cameron is launching his vision of the “Big Society”, funding for the Green Investment Bank that environment bodies were preparing to welcome now looks to have been diverted to other schemes. The latest news is that the Sustainable Development Commission is going to be axed.
The UK’s current funding levels for green technology at £550m per year are far below those of other developed economies and nowhere near high enough to keep up with others’ development.
And it’s not just developed countries that threaten to overtake us in this area. According to Tim Yeo, chairman of the commons energy and climate change select committee, China is investing “furiously” in low carbon technology and could be the economy best placed to profit from carbon reduction targets.
Even in the context of unprecedented public sector cuts, the UK is potentially missing a huge trick here. Green technology is a relatively new industry with enormous growth potential and we may be passing up the opportunity to cash in. And government, as well as industry investment, is key.
A recent report from the Committee on Climate Change predicts that without government support, green technology development could fall into the “valley of death” and never reach the market. So business, which is also facing difficult times, requires greater certainty to invest itself. This impasse endangers our longer-term economic recovery.
But economy aside, cutting our investment in green technology will, as the Committee on Climate Change maintains, also be a disaster for our target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% over the next 40 years. Business has a significant role in this process and it is quality professionals who will work to reduce the environmental impact of their organisations and make them truly sustainable in both senses of the word.
After all, what sort of a “Big Society” will we have in the future if we don’t protect our environment?
By Simon Feary, CQI CEO
21 July 2010
