Comments

2 Feb 10 at 17:03 by wilson wong

What struck me today was that there was a perception that leadership from the government in setting a clear framework for the UK economy in the future was missing. There is a lot of good work being done in the various agencies but at its heart, there was a call for an overarching development framework that cut across departmental, geographical and political boundaries, a Masterplan, for want of a better word, that is not hostage to political opportunism but reflects a vision towards which all stakeholders can contribute. Educational institutions can then invest in delivering new programmes, industry can calculate risk returns on investments that have a useful life of decades and transport infrastructure is viewed as strategic to development rather than as a return on capital. Moving to a low carbon economy is then a strategic initiative to re-imagine/ re-engineer the UK economy, not a piecemeal intervention that stops and starts whenever the ROI is deemed less attractive than less green options.

2 Feb 10 at 22:19 by David Arkell

Wilson summarises the salient issue of the need for a (50 year?) framework very well. I must emphasise the overriding consensus of our 3 groups that education, skills and training must NOW be co-ordinated as a clear and exciting proposition for our current and future generations. Such "low carbon" or "post carbon" skills need to be positioned as cleaning exisitng industry and innovating business opportunities. Let's learn and share with our EU partners - we have many good experiences on which to build. Our children and young people get "climate change" and have connected with their elders to quite a degree so l believe the message and action must change gear with business,industry, government and education connecting in skills solutions at every level.
Thanks for a great workshop!

3 Feb 10 at 21:01 by Beticus Magnus

What is all this nonsense about Climate change? People are still bickering on about how the climate is changing. Of course the climate will change - it has change and will continue to change. The Earth is a geo-physical element that is in a continuing, ever changing state. Now, those who proport that humans breathing and cow flatulance is going to destroy the Earth - well now, I believe that all you guru´s and think tanks are either blind or just devious. Climate change is a false-flag concotion that has been contrived by the eco-political powers to draw more money out of the current economy, consolidate power at an international level, thus destroying any remaining sovereignty left in this world. The only winners will be World Government players and their elite international banking cartels & corporations. Mr Wilson Wong is living in a fantasy world when he says "Moving to a low carbon economy is then a strategic initiative to re-imagine/ re-engineer the UK economy..." Get real Mr Wong - this is a concerted effort by big money brokers, international banking players like the Rothschilds to penetrate deeper into this world. Major PUBLIC figures like Gordon Brown and Obama Barack are boldly stepping out and announcing world government and the imposition of cap & trade on our western civilisation - they want to destroy us and create a more "level playing field", a remark that I heard from a big bankster here in London. Protect our sovereignty, industry and liberty!

3 Feb 10 at 21:10 by Beticus Magnus

As for leading us out of the recession - renationalise the management of currency, disband the Bank of England and prosecute their board and executives for high treason and anyone associated with them. Fractional reserve lending is a crime and these people have been robbing Britons since 1694.

4 Feb 10 at 10:39 by wilson wong

Dear Beticus Magnus

Part of being in a thriving democracy is that people can and do disagree. The evidence is there to see that human activity does affect the climate and that rapacious resource extraction and waste on a planetary scale is not sustainable. For far too long, sovereign states have looked after their own short term interests - e.g. deforestation, pollution etc. The effect of these decisions are not sustainable and do not respect sovereign boundaries; hence the need for international collaboration.

I can respect that you are skeptical about the data on climate change and even have some sympathy for your conspiracy theory that there are the powerful self-interested few who seek to dominate the world but are you seriously proposing that we seal our borders and turn our backs on the rest of the world and become Albania (as it was 20 years ago)?

Now if we were trading insults and I'm not, I would say that was 'fantasy'..