No Laughing Matter

The Appleton Space Conference on 6th December was full of space scientists, of course. The keynote speaker was from Virgin Galactic, who aim to make space tourism a reality sometime later this year.

The propellant to get the spacecraft from the mother ship, to the outside of the atmosphere is currently a combination of rubber and nitrous oxide – AKA laughing gas. Now those of you who have visited climate secrets or read my earlier postings, will know that CO2 is not the worst greenhouse gas, by unit volume. In fact Nitrous Oxide’s radiative warming effect is substantially less than CO₂, but its persistence in the atmosphere, when considered over a 100 year period, per unit of weight, has 296 times more impact on global warming than CO2.

The good news from Virgin Galactic is they are trialling biofuel as a replacement propellant. Roll on that day. Now all I need is $100,000 and I can sign up for a guilt-free trip into space!

Clutching at Straws

Doing a little market research recently has left me flabbergasted.

One of the questions was  “do you think climate change is happening?” Only a third of the people replying said Yes – and these are MDs of companies.

Regardless of the vast amounts of evidence and scientific consensus, how do they explain the weather chaos we’ve seen with our own eyes this year?

On a recent Radio4 “Any Answers?” slot, person after person phoned-in to say that climate change was all a load of rubbish (“that channel 4 programme got it right…”).  Did they not realise that the scientist to which they referred in the Channel 4 programme was also the last one to cling to the view that smoking doesn’t cause cancer?

The thought that some climate change is inevitable is a bit scary, so it is understandable that people are clutching at straws in this way.

But if two thirds of business leaders are still not believing that it is already starting to happen, what incentive is there for them to bring innovative products to market to help people with the problems such as flooding and travel disruption?

Can’t we use our emotional energy to do something positive, rather than stay in denial?

Carbon’s bad – but watch out for perflourocarbons

So what’s with the Carbon focus? CO2 reduction, Carbon Trading, Carbon Trust carbon footprinting. Companies looking at climate change often have carbon on the brain. Why is this?

Well, the scientists tell us that carbon dioxide contributes to 80% of the problem of global warming, mainly because CO2 is so prolific. That’s why we are so bothered with it. But watch out – the other 20% comes from other greenhouse gases – some of which are evil incarnate.

Take perflourocarbons. If carbon has a warming potential of 1, perflourocarbons have a warming potential of 6,500 – 9,200 over a 100 yr time horizon. That’s a nasty gas.

Should we be bothered, if the quantities of these gases are relatively small? Well, if we are all busy inventing new ways of reducing carbon, we need to make sure we don’t produce something that emits perflourocarbons instead…

…that’s why Ems2’s name contains the word “Emissions” (as in all greenhouse gases), rather than “Carbon”. Let’s keep our eyes open folks.

Dangers of politicising Climate Change

With the recent floods raising the profile of climate change even higher, can direct action be justified to help combat climate change? Is the direct action involved in the camp planned at Heathrow on 14th August reasonable? Here’s a quote from the climate camp website “This is the only way to stop the actions of those vested interests that watch the planet burn while counting the money they make from the fire.“

Ok, here’s my point. Does demonising business leaders get results? Does aligning yourself with the acts of political extremists get you public sympathy? I don’t think it does. I think those who politicise climate change and promote direct action (a phrase which can mean much more extreme things than peaceful protest) need to realise they may be risking alienating exactly the people who they need as allies.

Do these people want to overturn the capitalist system that currently governs the way the world operates? I’m not just talking fat cats here, I’m talking about interest rates and pensions, things many of us rely on for our financial security.

Now I understand the issue with climate change, yes we need to act. Businesses of all sizes, people wherever they live, need to change how they emit greenhouse gases like CO2. That is why I set up my business, Ems2. The best way to make this change is to find ways of doing profitable business that reduces GHGs, or those of others. This keeps our futures safe in more ways than one. We don’t need anarchy, we need to work with people.

Even corporate CEOs are human beings. Those of us trying to help organisations take positive steps to combat climate change need to relate to them as such. Let’s stop radicalising people into extremist behaviour; it’s the climate change we need to fight, not each other. Let’s allow the police to spend their time on more useful stuff than dragging people away from the outskirts of Heathrow because of some misguided sense of doing the right thing.

A good place to think creatively

I’m originally from a city as close to Cornwall as you can get without being in it, and have always been a fan of its breezy coastline and fabulous surf and sand. The South West Development Agency have been busy transforming Cornwall’s economy from lowly-paid seasonal hotel jobs into clusters of highly-paid year-round businesses.

One of the clusters is environmental technologies, and the northern coastline has a dramatic skyline of wind turbines.

I met with the Eden Project and told them my vision to help businesses to think positively about their approach to climate change, and they agreed Ems2 can use their new-ish Core building for creative workshops and strategy development. Thankfully, there is public transport and a fantastic local hotel…

Nice one chaps!

It’s not relevant to my business

I spoke to a business person who worked for a law firm.

“Climate change doesn’t really apply to us”, he said, “we don’t have factories or make anything, we don’t need to transport our products anywhere, and our light bulbs are all energy savers”.

This is old thinking. This is looking at climate change as a problem not an opportunity.

My response was “there is such a lot of legislation, at international, EU and UK levels that affect, or will affect businesses. As a law firm, you could decide to specialise in the legal aspects of climate change, and develop this as a new service stream”.

This is new thinking. This has nothing to do with changing your light bulbs.

Smaller businesses can join in

The funny thing about climate change is how much it is bringing different groups of people together.

I’m not just talking about social groups like Friends of the Earth, schools, other charities and householders, where Climatexchange is doing such a great job here in Oxfordshire.

Big corporates, getting help from the Carbon Trust, are having to involve all different parts of their business in their new carbon strategies, from HR, Risk assessment, health and safety to environment and facilities and energy managers – right across the board, they are having to get everyone involved.

Smaller businesses are being a little left out – it’s time to join in folks!

Heard the one about the piglets’ carrot ice lollies?

Adaptation brings out the creative in business people – one farmer helped his piglets keep cool by making them a carrot ice lolly. Great for 2006; this summer we need something to combat the rain rather than the sun.

I can’t afford consultants!

Not many SMEs can, that’s why you shouldn’t pay anything for them.

There are other ways to develop your strategies – Ems2 can help, it won’t break the bank.

A drop in the ocean compared with China and India?

The rapid commercial expansion of India and China is a fact, and there are mechanisms in the Kyoto protocol which help this to happen without such an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, such as CDM.

We can have an intellectual debate about how well this might work, but to the average small business leader,the reality is usually a little closer to home. There is no getting away from the fact that SMEs, even if they only operate in one country, are going to find themselves under increasing pressure around the climate change agenda.

This might be from legislation, from their customers needing products or services to reduce their own carbon footprint, or from the pure fact that disruptions in weather and transport means the business needs to adjust its operations to survive, or enable customers to survive.

India and China will do whatever they will do – enterprise leaders in the UK, Europe and US need to find a practical way through the confusion to stay in business.