Time for a green re-think

01 October, 2015

A newly published EEF report makes a simple proposal for what that rethink should aim to do. Raynes comments that this new research suggests energy or carbon prices alone may never, realistically, be high enough to deliver the level of improvement required. “So why not replace the stick of ever-higher policy costs with the carrot of positive incentives for green investment?,” he reasoned. In more detail, EEF is suggesting some practical short-term steps to simplify what it sees as the tangle of green levies, target what Government funding survives the spending review into encouraging research and investment in green technologies, and use regulation and other levers to pull industry into a green future.

EEF has a strong argument. The whole milieu surrounding environmental responsibility and our economy looked at from a ‘green’ perspective should be much more inspiring and motivating for businesses. There should be more of a focus on incentivising firms to look at green strategies in the same positive way that they aim for increased profits. Instead, high emission-related taxation and the seeming propensity to source more renewable energy-generating collateral such as wind turbines from foreign suppliers rather than giving many of the contracts to UK companies seems largely to be the order of the day. Now is the time for a serious Governmental re-think.

Ed Holden

Editor