Video Interviews
Antony Giddens, Former Director of the LSE
John Podesta, President of the Centre for American Progress
Tony Blair, Former UK Prime Minister
Greg Clark, UK Shadow Secretary for Energy and Climate Change
Roger Liddle, Vice-Chair of Policy Network
Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, CEO of the easyGroup
Richard Lambert, Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry
Matthias Machnig, German State Secretary for the Environment
Paul Hoffheinz, President, The Lisbon Council
Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, The Financial Times
Will Straw, Fellow, Center for America Progress
Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge
Andreas Goss, CEO of Siemens UK
1 response so far ↓
Hans Myrhaug // June 12, 2009 at 2:10 pm |
It is a pleasure to see that the conceptualisation of ’sustainable development’, originating from The Brundtland Commission, is now being embraced at such a scale by UK Politicians, Businesses, and Researchers.
The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), known by the name of its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, was convened by the United Nations in 1983. Established to address the increasing concern “about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development.”, it has since inspired environmentalists and policy makers in the early adopters of green energy – and now the late adopters seems willing to cross the chasm to sustainable development (Wikipedia, “Brundtland Commission”, accessed 12 June 2009).
Two and a half decades, three financial crisis later, and Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ as final icing, made the late adopters of green energy in the G20 group start embracing sustainable development.
Let us now hope this trend continues for real and that the continued non-insulation of UK buildings, the use of gas, and a century old way of heating homes, finally will be seen as a non-sustainable way for the sustainable development in UK.
In this light, the Politics of Climate Change Conference is a promising initiative. The discussion needs to mature from political discussions and into actions and real incentives for green energies to be used. But most importantly, people need access to these solutions without having to pay an arm and a leg up to several times. Once people see the needs and benefits, the likelihood of sustainable business to prosper would be high.