Editorial

As governments grapple with climate change, we hear more and more about “joining up the policy with the science”. If only the former were half as clear as the latter.

It’s clear, for a start, that we need to do a lot more to mitigate our impact on climate change. The latest report from the UN’s expert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reflecting a powerful scientific consensus, says current policies worldwide could let annual global greenhouse gas emissions more than double by 2030. But it also says (as did the economics-focused Stern review) that they can be ‘stabilised’ at acceptable cost between now and then.

For the IPCC, ‘acceptable cost’ means at worst a 3% shave off global GDP by 2030; at best an actual boost to growth. Its recommended mix of measures, sector by sector, majors on the things you’d expect… like behaviour change, energy efficiency, renewables. Nuclear energy rates a mention, and there’s plenty on carbon capture and storage - but it’s the authority the report carries that makes it special, rather than any sensational new findings.

And nobody at the G8 (industrialised countries) summit in Heiligendamm in early June really took issue with it. Which is progress of a kind, given the past record of the Bush administration. But then again, the summit’s official conclusions present the very picture of harmony and resolute purpose on climate change. Strange, that. In reality it was a fragile rescue act, whose ‘triumph’ was to keep the post-2012 ‘Kyoto II’ process within the UN framework.

Mere days beforehand, President Bush had apparently attempted to outflank all that, proposing a whole new US-convened negotiating process heavily kilted towards technological solutions rather than ‘cap-and-trade’. At the summit he did back off - though neither he nor Putin signed up to the EU-proposed targets of keeping global temperature increases below 2°C, and halving emissions by 2050.

As for China and India, our Briefings pages kick off with a quick appraisal of their recent positions on climate change - and a run-down on the countries keenest to become carbon neutral.

There’s plenty of innovative energy in this issue too, as we bring you up to speed on tidal power, capture the buzz of energetic people, look critically at the current generation of micro-wind and balance out the hype and hope of biofuels.

Our main feature theme, however, is the energy of entrepreneurship and innovation. Fiona Harvey’s exploration of how to grasp new opportunities in the world of the sustainable entrepreneur [‘Start me up’], studded with examples of pioneers who’ve been there and done that, is complemented by Sally Uren’s appraisal of the speed of the shift towards sustainability among the corporate giants [‘Leaders of the pack ’].

Roger East

The new logo on the cover of the print edition is part of the new image of Forum for the Future. We’re redesigning Green Futures too: the new (quarterly) print version appears in September, when we also launch our expanded online presence within a revamped Forum for the Future website. I’ll be keen to have your responses as this happens. Meanwhile, there’ll be updated content at www.greenfutures.org.uk throughout the summer.

25 June 2007

Roger East