Innovate for success

Mar 12 2009 by Kelley Price, Evening Gazette

STAY green to stay on top - that was the message to Tees Valley companies from a government environment minister at Middlesbrough’s national climate change conference.

Businesses need to innovate green ideas to emerge from the recession ahead of the game, said Department of Energy and Climate Change minister, Joan Ruddock.

Mrs Ruddock, who is Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the department, spoke to more than 200 delegates yesterdayat Local Action on Climate Change.

She told the conference: “While Governments must focus on the recession, we know that now is not the time to abandon the climate change agenda.

“The world economy will recover and what really matters is to find new ways of coming through it.”

And later she told the Evening Gazette: “Businesses should go for quick wins, get on with it and demonstrate.”

She claimed green legislation was intended to provide incentives for businesses, not penalties. Under the Carbon Reduction Commitment, those organisations affected (typically those with a £500,000 annual energy spend or more) would not be penalised for three years.

“If you are high up the carbon reduction league table, you will get a financial reward,” she said.

Next month will also see the UK announce the world’s first carbon budget, which Government policies and programmes must adhere to. The UK has announced an 80% reduction target by 2050.

Mrs Ruddock said councils were a pivotal influence on tackling climate change and praised Middlesbrough’s “joined-up” approach. On the home energy front, she said “extensive” Government energy efficiency measures would be taken towards retro-fitting hard-to-treat homes. But she admitted community energy, district heating and combined heat and power all faced commercial and regulatory barriers which needed to be overcome. The conference was co-hosted by Middlesbrough Council, Forum for the Future, and Middlesbrough Environment City. It was opened by Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon, one of the first to sign up to Europe’s “Covenant to Mayors” who last month pledged to beat their countries’ climate change targets by 2020.