3. Simon Slater »
3.1 Introduction
Dreaming of a Low Carbon West Midlands – or the low carbon revolutionary handbook. “Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a nightmare’, he said ‘I have a dream’” Ed Miliband, Climate Change Minister, 2009. “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything” Malcolm X I have worked across the UK [...]
Read more »3.2 Rule 1: the low carbon economy is the whole of the future economy
The first problem is that, despite its constant use, people often find the term ‘low carbon economy’ confusing or poorly defined. The best way to address this is use the definition set out in ‘Connecting to Success.’ “A low carbon economy is one that produces goods and services of increasing value while reducing the associated [...]
Read more »3.3 Rule 2: sell the low carbon economy, guided by sustainable development, as the ‘silver bullet’
Care has to be taken here. Politicians are always looking for a solution that will solve all or many of their problems, but often find it is too complicated for simple answers and this leads to inaction. The low carbon economy faces a number of challenges. It can still lead to economic exclusion, for example [...]
Read more »3.4 Rule 3: for the West Midlands the low carbon economy means building on our strengths – such as engineering, science, technology, transport, construction, and energy efficiency
The West Midlands has a series of unique characteristics. Because of our location at the heart of the transport network, lack of offshore renewable opportunities, limited deployment opportunities for wind power, and the largest concentration of manufacturing in the UK, we have to work harder than other regions to reduce our share of carbon. Also [...]
Read more »3.5 Rule 4: be clear on the measures of low carbon economy success
Don’t be misled by targets for 2050 or 2080 which are an excuse to do nothing, stay focused on 2020. In terms of indicators of success focus on three: Improve economic productivity by 30 percent through increased resource efficiency, innovation, business creation, and social enterprises tackling long-term unemployment. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent [...]
Read more »3.6 Rule 5: make success look desirable and attractive
Even if you have defined a low carbon economy, kept it simple, sold the benefits, built on the existing strengths of the region, and set measures of success – it will not be enough. You need to be able to help people imagine and ‘buy into’ a desirable future that we would all want to [...]
Read more »3.7 Rule 6: identify the steps to achieve the vision – start with the first step
The final rule is to set out a series of steps to help achieve the vision. The first step must be where people are at in terms of their understanding. Sustainability West Midlands has found this out through the work we have been doing with local authority leaders around the low carbon economy. We tried [...]
Read more »3.8 Final words
We have the emerging talent and leaders, we have the best low carbon evidence base in the UK, we have a concept of ‘the low carbon economy’ that if guided by broader sustainability principals will act as solution for many issues, and we have a vision, priorities and steps on how to get there. The [...]
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