Britain's sustainability efforts still more brown than green

Britain’s “greenest government ever” remains anything but, with a new report to Parliament showing the UK’s emissions rose by 3 percent in 2010.

The report from the Committee on Climate Change offers a little encouragement by noting that last year’s emissions were still within the UK’s carbon budget. But that was only because emissions dropped dramatically — by 9 percent — the year before, in 2009, thanks to the recession.

The third progress report on meeting carbon budgets makes two key recommendations for making sure emissions are reduced as planned:

• The government should announce new arrangements for the nation’s electricity market based on long-term contracts and clear support for renewable energy development; and
• As part of its “Green Deal,” the government should aim to have all the country’s lofts and cavity walls insulated by 2015, with an additional 2 million solid walls insulated by 2020, with that goal being the responsibility of energy companies.

Upon becoming Prime Minister in 2010, David Cameron pledged to make his coalition government the “greenest government ever.” The results so far, however, have mostly underwhelmed advocates for low-carbon, environmentally sustainable action.

Jonathan Porritt, who previously headed the UK’s now-defunct Sustainable Development Commission, chastised the government earlier this year, saying it had made little or no progress in 55 out of 75 of its stated green policies. And Peter Grant, CEO of the sustainability software company CloudApps, today issued an open letter to “celebrate 30 days of glorious inactivity by the Green Investment Bank.”

Addressed to Sir Adrian Montague, who was appointed in May 2011 to lead development of the government’s financing scheme for green development, the letter urges him to put more focus on small- and medium-sized businesses and ways to improve sustainability not just through adding renewable energy but by focusing on reducing energy demand:

“Waste disposal, energy bills, water bills and carbon taxes are not one-off, but recurring costs for every UK business. Why not invest here and get compounded gains, not just ‘never never’ paybacks.”

While his letter doesn’t disguise that it’s a not-too-subtle plug for CloudApps’ energy efficiency software, Grant makes several reasonable suggestions for the Green Investment Bank:

• Give companies that don’t meet their CRC carbon-reduction requirements the option of spending their fines on sustainable technologies;
• Offer businesses grant funding to support green initiatives that engage employees;
• Provide loans to companies for reducing demand-side energy waste; and
• Create more tax-efficient investment incentives for designated UK-based green businesses.