New World Power. Did you notice that the final deal was cut behind closed doors and that the EU was not a party to this, just USA, China and India. Given that the EU has driven the agenda so hard, seems unfortunate to say the least!

Diplomacy has its limits!. 192 countries in a room trying to get an agreement - looking back this was an impossible task and really it is not surprising that no ‘meaningful agreement’ was reached.

Too many hangers on.There was too much noise, too many people and not enough focus. The COPs do not work- 20,000 people all screaming, it is not surprising that nothing gets achieved as it is just one enormous climate jamboree. Time to change the format.

No Business. Business leaders were excluded from the process. This is plainly ridiculous given that they will be the one’s funding the whole change.

Another Climate Catastrophe! Unfortunately it seems that the only way that these political blockheads are going to ‘get it’ is when another climate catastrophe happens.  Plain Stupid! They need to watch The Day After Tomorrow again.

And so, I am left feeling totally unimpressed by everyone and everything about the COP. Time for Business and People to stop thinking the politicians are going to do anything and time for us to take responsibility - if ever there was a need for a ‘movement for change’ then it is now!

As we reach the end of the first decade in the 21st Century, about one third of the world’s population still has no access to electricity, says Harish Hande.

Harish argues that poor people should be at the centre of sustainable energy policies, not on the end of handouts and has set up his own company called Harish Hande  SELCO Solar Light  to do exactly that.  

Many of the conversations in the WEF were focussed around the need for solutions for the developing world, relatively few were aimed at solving finance of these solutions.

Apparently there is more than enough money out there, but the global north is scared of pledging it to the global south without strings attached.

Well Harish has part of the answer with his new company called SELCO which has pioneered access to rural solar electrification for below poverty line families through a combination of customized sustainable energy services (like lighting and cooking etc) in tandem with innovative doorstep financing.

Around 57% of the Indian population does not have electricity and for many more, the supply is unreliable. In addition, those living on less than $2 a day in India annually produce close to a billion tons in CO2 emissions showing that the developing markets must be addressed with the issue of climate change.

SELCO have developed a business based on three basic understandings – the poor can afford sustainable technologies; the poor can maintain sustainable technologies; users want run commercially viable venture serving the needs of the community.

The core business of SELCO is the sale and financing of solar-home-systems that provide lighting but also are suitable for radios, fans and income generating activities.

SELCO works with banks and MFIs to create financing mechanisms that suit the cash flow of the client. For example, a user will pay a small down payment and then pay monthly installments of 150 to 350 Rs over three to five years. The user can pay from extra income brought in from additional work made possible with the energy intervention and savings from eliminating costly fossil fuels with customized payment schedules.

The end result of this initiative apart from providing decentralized, green power is the creation sustainable energy service-related businesses and entrepreneurs.

It seems to me that it is essential that solutions like this are promoted in tandem with other larger infrastructure solutions. Better to get de-centralised renewables out there in a responsible way that initiate development rather than paying a big company to put in a power infrastructure that just locks people into a corporate monopoly!

We are getting good support from all over including this from Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dems.

Enjoy!

My view is that although UEA has made a monumental mess of the whole situation and been made to look like an amateur night out, that this does not change our the underlying consensus. UEA is but one data centre. NASA has their own that almost maps the finding of UEA. There is no conspiracy, just sloppiness. If science is going to play it’s part, then it needs to remain objective, provide the data and allow the results (and facts??!!) to speak for themselves. Of course we always need a good orator, but let the advocate fall back on some good facts.

If there is one good thing to emerge from this fiasco, it is that the debate will be re-opened and the issue finally put to bed as politicians and the public will at last see the real issues.

For this to happen, UEA are going to provide access to whatever data they do have in whatever form it is available for public scrutiny. This needs to be compared to other data sources to substantiate the original findings. Alternatively, we should ignore their results and use other data sets to prove the case.

I heard Chris Smith (ex-minister) now head of the Environment Agency speak last night and he made a number of excellent points about the reality of climate change around the country; species being found further north than ever before, the Thames barrier being raised more times this past year than ever before, increased climate events in Cumbria. These are the reality of change and it is happening now, so whilst the debate is healthy and needed, let us not put on hold the urgent action that is needed.

Guy

There were many of  ideas that rivalled for my ‘best of the bunch’ but I am going to focus on a single one and develop my thinking for it a bit more. My thoughts are still in their infancy and need much development, and so you will have to forgive me for the myriad of gaps.

The Green Economy - A Club of Nations and Cities

In short this would comprise a club of nations and cities who have signed up to a set of principles and rules but in return get access to a range of environmental financial and social benefits.

The goals would be visionary but simple.

To get into the club, a nation or city must agree to abide by a set of rules. These rules and indicators will be progressive and enforceable over time and if not met, the nation or city will be excluded. There will be a set of pre-requsite requirements to get in such as; not at war; not a dictatorship (will need careful thought to ensure inclusiveness but not so low as to discredit the group)

Nations will need to agree to independent measurement and verification. An index will be developed identifying the best and the worst.

Rewards and access to benefits that will be awarded according to the index of performance and progress to meeting goals.

The Goals

Economies to strive towards

·         100% renewable energy

·         100% clean water

·         All materials and waste to be 100% recyclable or reusable

·         All products and materials safe and clean

·         Social equity

·         Net positive biodiversity

The Index

We will need to establish an index and many issues will need to be covered including

·         Biodiversity

·         Water

·         Net Carbon emissions

·         % renewables

·         % clean water

·         Environmental management

·         Land ownership and laws

·         Political stability

·         Corruption

·         Gender issues

·         Certification

·         Planning laws

·         Subsidies

To name but a few (Wow this is getting complex!!)

Benefits

Benefits will come in the form of access to services, technology and preferential finance. Examples of these are follows

·         Cheap money, preferential loans

·         IP

·         Emerging technologies

·         Investment opportunities

·         Education facilities

·         Carbon sinks

·         Funds

·         R&D

In some ways this proposal is very similar to some of the other initiatives that are already out there, but differ in two key areas. The first is that all nations and cities would have to produce and work to a carbon action plan that delivers a low carbon and green economy. The second and most important of all, would be the benefits that would accrue including access to ‘green funding’ at preferential rates (quick funds), access to IP and technology and access to broader learning and education. A particular goal of the club would be to foster partnerships across nations and cities.

Thoughts and Comments?

End

Over 240 ideas were listed from the various groups and clusters. These ranged from the broad and the complex, to the detailed and bold.

Some of these ideas were as follows

·         A new set of world values that animate our deepest principles

·         A new world council for children and the young (50% of world population is under 25 years)

·         Universal flu vaccinations

·         1/6 of world’s population have daily access to food less than the volume of a small cup, so food for all especially those under 2yrs

·         Health and well being index by nation

·         Keep our present institutions, but change teir rules of engagement (ie they must adopt world vision)

·         A new security agenda

·         Nationwide risk index

·         Countries to insure against policy risk related to ‘green projects’

·         Explanation of the benefits of immigration (both ways)

·         Mass communication campaign to galvanise action at community and people

·         Regular report on social competitiveness, social innovation, social enterprise

·         Centre to promote health and wellbeing ( not just medicine)

·         Eliminate all subsidies on fossil fuels (at moment fossil fuels enjoy a $150bn subsidy and renewables only $60bn. In India the government subsidises kerosene to tune of 410bn, thus should be changed to ensure renewables- more democratic)

·         Low growth plans to be adopted by all countries and these to be backed up by a comprehensive measurement, reward and verification programme)

·         SEFTA – Sustainable energy free trade association where all taxes for green solutions are dropped and all externalities are priced

·         Quick start fund for 3 objectives, forestry and biodiversity protection, climate adaption fund, private-public finance of emerging technologies

·         Certification for low carbon products to provide consumer choice

I will write more tomorrow about some specific plans for the development of what I see as the most exciting idea - The Green Economy.

Guy

I have just returned from the World Economic Forum today and hot from the cauldron of discussion I bring you the latest news.

I have to be honest with you that the news is mixed. Here’s my summary from the opening statements from today’s closing session

Our  world is in crisis !; our values are void, risk has become the new norm, certainty has deserted us, our governance inadequate,  our institutions has failed us and we are lurch into an age where food, fuel and land is too little and our emissions too great!

And yet out of this cauldron of bad news there is hope and reasons to be optimisitic

The first piece of good news is that I can say at least our governmental, institutional and business leaders are joined in recognising that there is a problem, that it is both systemic and will need extraordinary and visionary leadership and cross nation collaboration to solve.

The second piece of news is that an inlking of a new world vision is emerging. Some of the headlines from the discussions include the following.

·         New a Global Architecture for governance and institutions

·         Sustainable consumption (less about having and more about being)

·         Mobilisation of communities in taking action

·         Quantum leap in data sharing and collaboration

·         Creation of the ‘Green economy’ powered by renewable energy

·         Freedom of information and technology

·         Agenda through consensus

·         Long term investment into new infrastructure

·         New vision for building a sustainable world

·         Protection of our biodiversity and forestry

·         Choice

·         Food for all

·         Fair process, no corruption

I know this is not yet a world vision, but hey we only had 1.5 days!  More detail in my next blog.

Guardian Yesterday , Jackie Asley (Let’s tune in again 16.11.09) was spot on. Like her, I am fed up with the continuous political fighting over details and performance. What we need as we move towards next year’s election is the development of the BIG VISION, supported by BIG IDEAS , allowing us that all important BIG DEBATE.  

As an environmental designer and I know that without a concept properly thought through from the start, it is almost impossible to deliver a holistic solution; as the design progresses, details will keep on cropping up and without that big picture and philosophy, they become impossible to solve and you are left with a disconnected mish-mash!

What we need is a framework that is all inclusive and will allow decisions on all issues to be made within a context.

This is lacking at the moment, but it does seem that out of the ashes of the banking crisis, the stuttering diplomacy of Copenhagen, and the present political debate that one is beginning to emerge that is both global and local.

The strands that are emerging;-

The Climate  Deal –The poorer nations are demanding financial support from those that have polluted. There is also a growing recognition that reductions solutions can only be delivered by engaging society at a local level and by changing culture.

Big Society – David Cameron’s ideas around Big Society rather than big government, one that empowers ‘people’.

Tobin Tax – Gordon Brown (and others) talks about a tax on all transactions that should be shared equally between the state and within a climate deal.

Energy Strategy – Ed Miliband talking about fast tracking planning on new energy infrastructure.

Somewhere amongst this lot it seems that there is the potential to galvanise local action and divest responsibility whilst finding a more equitable means of distributing wealth for the good of the planet and its people as a whole.

I do not want to play on old clichés and nor do I want to propagate any notion of communism, but somehow all of these things need to come together if we are to find a solution that meets local needs whilst delivering on the BIG PICTURE.

Anyway, thanks to Jackie for kicking off the debate-but how do we keep it going?

Guy

17.11.09