Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
May 1st 2008 Change is spoken of all the time at present.We use 70% more water than we did 40 years ago and to prevent water supply scarcity, droughts and even floods we need to change our behaviour. As Jacob Tompkins, director at Waterwise says in his column in this issue,“Floods and droughts are two sides of the same coin: many floods happen when the soil is too dry to let water soak in, and many droughts happen when not enough water has sunk down into the soils to replace the groundwater.”
We have to adapt our habits in the light of growing evidence about the dangers of climate change.This includes reducing energy use, using more renewables and cutting greenhouse gases in processes. As Robert C.Gallagher said,“Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine”. And whether you truly believe in global warming or not, change is inevitable for businesses; you have to prepare for it whether it is the carbon reduction commitment, new building regulations or any other regulatory reform to encourage climate change mitigation.
For all of the change that you implemented, are currently undergoing or planning, one would imagine that the results provide evidence of how effectively we are heading towards a low carbon future. However, the National Audit Office has recently highlighted the fact that the Government uses two different reporting systems sometimes within the same report. It has criticised the confusion that inevitably arises. For certain sets of data, shipping and aviation are included and for others not.The NAO commented on the debate about whether the buying of foreign emissions credits should count towards domestic goals and the inconsistency over whether emissions are quoted as carbon equivalent or carbon dioxide equivalent.The treasury suggests emissions have dropped through the inclusion of foreign credits while DEFRA suggest that they have remained stable by their omission. Furthermore the inclusion of shipping and aviation to our emissions accounting propels the figure of 655 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to 733 million tonnes.The result is that we are not doing nearly as well as the Government says if all uses of energy are accounted for. If the Government is serious about climate change mitigation then it needs to sort out its reporting, otherwise we cannot get a handle on the nature of the beast we are dealing with. If the title seems a little too apocalyptic then bear in mind the report by the Royal United Services Institute that claims that £10 billion a year is needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change – and that changing temperatures will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states.
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