AG Director gives evidence to Environmental Audit Committee
Andrew Raingold, Executive Director at the Aldersgate Group (AG), told the EAC committee the government's definition for a green economy should incorporate social aspects of sustainable development, focus on employment impacts and reflect the Government commitment to put natural capital at the heart of economic decision making. To listen to the evidence session, click here.
AG's calls for the Government to green the Plan for Growth and bring forward the date the GIB can borrow from 2015 was reflected in an article in today's FT.
Peter Young debates green policy, at B4E Summit
Peter Young, Chairman of the Aldersgate Group joined a panel alongside the South African Ambassador at Large, at the Business for Environment Global Summit to discuss "Transforming policy to scale up green growth."
He highlighted the importance of leveraging private investment to address political and institutional risks, so that the market can address the technical risks, which it understands. "It's the political and institutional risk which is scaring off investors."
View the whole debate here.
AG Member makes the case for closed loop business models
Ramon Arratia, Sustainability Director for InterfaceFlor (an Aldersgate Group (AG) member), spoke on "Closed loop business models for the future" at the B4E Climate Summit.
He drew comparisons with nature, where organisms don't eat their own waste. "In nature, waste from one organism becomes the food for another organism, and this is what we've seen in our industry. Rather than just limiting ourselves to making carpet from recycling nylon from our own carpet, we saw the opportunity of recycling other things, like fishing nets in certain countries." The closed loop business model, Ramon argued, should not be restricted to closed loops, "but just loops", incorporating "scavenging" from other industries, a process which may be threatened by creation of new materials.
The full discussion can be seen here.
AG responds to government proposals for simplifying the CRC
To mark the publication of Aldersgate Group's (AG) repsonse to the CRC simplification proposals, Chris Tuppen, AG Director, said "The Government's red tape challenge asks for suggestions on how to simplify environment and energy policy. At the same time a choir of voices including the Aldersgate Group, the CBI, and the OECD are calling on the Government to simplify their approach to carbon pricing. We urge DECC to take another look at the benefits to government and business of bringing together the CRC, CCL and CCAs."
Guardian Sustainable Business has published an article by Andrew Raingold, Executive Director at the Aldersgate Group, on the CRC which can be viewed here.
AG Directors appointed to Defra advisory groups
Two Aldersgate Group (AG) Directors have been appointed to advisory groups that will make recommendations on the Government's better regulation agenda. Peter Young, AG Chairman, has been appointed in a personal capacity to the Defra Strategic Regulatory Scrutiny Panel which has been tasked with challenging and advising Defra on the way it thinks about regulation. In addition, Andrew Raingold, Executive Director, will sit on the Sounding Board for the Red Tape Challenge Environment Theme that is also being convened by Defra and will scrutinise regulatory proposals. The AG seeks to ensure that regulatory reform is primarily concerned with the effective achievement of outcomes, while reducing administrative burdens and maximising innovation potential.
Peter Young said "I welcome Defra’s initiative in bringing outside scrutiny and expertise to work closely with officials to achieve the objective of what the Aldersgate Group has coined 'best value regulation'. I think it reflects our constructive dialogue and capacity to add value to policy reform that Andrew and I have been selected for these appointments and I look forward to extending my personal relationships within Defra further through this important work.’
AG welcomes government vision for a green economy
Commenting on the launch of "Enabling the Transition to a Green Economy", Peter Young, Chairman of the Aldersgate Group and member of the Green Economy Council said: "I have no hesitation in welcoming this suite of reports; the breadth and clarity of government commitment is exactly the kind of coherent policy making we have long argued for. The opportunity for the Green Economy Council to build on the government commitments and the businesses challenges laid out are encouraging for the future competitiveness of the UK.
"However the limp launch and lack of explicit endorsement by Number 10 and 11 is a warning that whilst the report rightly sets out to transform our whole economy, until the whole Government is visibly supporting this aim, the risk remains that more visionary leaders will steal the green economy race from right under our noses."
To see Andrew Raingold (Executive Director)'s article on Guardian Sustainable Business, click here.
Smart regulation would cut costs and drive innovation
AG's new lead for best-value regulation, Terry A'Hearn, calls for smarter regulation that would cut costs, simplify compliance, and spark “genuine business sustainability innovation”. In an article in ENDS, Terry draws on his 20 years’ experience in the Australian state of Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority (EPAV) to argue for the introduction of an "environmental driving license" and greater use of civil sanctions.
Reproduced with permission of The ENDS Report, the UK journal and website for environmental business and policy.
The case strengthens for mandatory carbon reporting
The Aldersgate Group (AG), in partnership with Christian Aid, The Co-operative and WWF, has commissioned a new report by Adelphi which provides independent analysis of Defra’s Impact Assessment (IA) for mandatory carbon reporting. It finds that when assessing reporting for all large companies (Option 3 in the consultation), Defra overestimates the total costs by up to £4,600m and underestimates the benefits by up to £980m. To read the report, click here.
Read the full consultation response in the pdf below and click here to read the summary of our panel debate, "Crunch Time for Carbon Reporting", with Mike Anderson, Director General of Defra.
UK can learn from California to develop green skills
Andrew Raingold, Executive Director of the AG, was a keynote speaker at the launch of a new report by the IPPR on lessons that can be learned from the US green jobs market. The paper assesses the success of the 'green jobs' policy agenda in the US and investigates a range of localised, bottom-up approaches to fostering the 'green economy', reaching excluded workers and meeting environmental targets. Click here to read more.
MPs call on Treasury to stop giving green taxes a bad name
The Aldersgate Group's evidence on environmental taxation was referenced in an Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into Budget 2011 that was published today. The AG argued that the fair fuel stabiliser was a missed opportunity to reduce taxes on income rather than to pay for a decrease in Fuel Duty and that greening the economy should be at the heart of the Government's plans for growth. The AG's Executive Director, Andrew Raingold, appeared as a witness before the inquiry.
To read more, click here.
