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25 February 2011

Climate Change & the World of Finance


This video from The Telegraph gives an insight into the financial sector's views on low carbon technology. Unsurprisingly they're taking a very hard nosed approach (the suit being interviewed dismisses ethical funds as 'fun' investments), and they are seeing climate change as a financial driver which will make green tech stocks grow - and that those stocks are a 'hedge' against inflation.

Some may find such calculated profiteering on the back of climate change vaguely distasteful, but I always argue that if we are to tackle climate change fast, then the solutions must be integrated into the way the world economy works now.

What this video also demonstrates is that if you want investment in your planet saving technology, these guys are no dupes - you're going to have to have a technology which delivers what it claims it can, at a realistic cost and a decent financial return. And beat the competition.

The low carbon economy - no place for wimps!

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24 March 2010

What's a Green Investment Bank?

With today's UK Governmental budget expected to be all doom and gloom, one green diamond in the murk could be Mr Darling's well trailed Green Investment Bank. If you, like me, are wondering what such a bank might look like and operate, the Guardian has a useful compendium of opinions here. We shall have to wait and see what Mr Darling has in his red box...

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17 February 2010

Tuesday Training

Yesterday I was on the trains again, this time down to York to train environmental champions for a public transport company. It was another beautiful early morning - this time misty where Monday was crystal clear, Durham Cathedral appeared lit golden behind the rising and evaporating trails of fog. The two sessions went well and the feedback good.

Since Monday, I've been mulling on an insight from Martin Blake of Royal Mail - what book value will high carbon buildings and infrastructure have in 5 or 10 years? Who will want to buy a 'dirty legacy'? This applies to today's client as well, although I'd thrown so much new stuff (ecological footprinting, carbon footprinting, climate change, sustainability, energy management etc) at the poor attendees that I thought this was one driver I would omit. As I write The Green Executive, I'm finding that sustainability is running deeper and deeper into the core of every organisation - everytime I think I've got it, there's another new angle. That's what I love about this job!

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