Get set for a green election!!

Gordon Brown fires the starting pistol on what promises to be the closest election in decades, green business leaders ask whether the low carbon economy could prove a vote winner?

We remain divided on the scale of the impact that environmental and low carbon issues are likely to have on the election campaign, which was formally kicked off yesterday when Gordon Brown confirmed the election would take place on May 6. And this will be a very close race as many can't see a clear leader!!

Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said that the environment and climate change could emerge as a "top three" issue during the campaign as each party seeks to tout its green credentials.

What I'd like to see is the whole thing being fought on the architecture of a Green New Deal, Only Vince Cable seems the type of spokesman we would all listen to on topics of economy and green together (some say he would be a good PM if only he joined another party).

Lord (Mandy) Mandelson talks about a low carbon revolution, he only gives it lip service as it needs to on a much bigger scale than anyone on Silicon Valley would ever recognise.

He added that there was a strong case for the parties to make low carbon policies a central part of their manifestos, particularly given the scale of the economic opportunity clean technologies represent.

"I would not even couch it in terms of climate change and would solely focus on the opportunity," he said. " But I would be very surprised if I am not disappointed by the campaign."

Lord Mandelson

"We're pleased to see the election has finally kicked off but disappointed to see that environment and energy policies seem to be taking a back-seat for all parties," she said. "The environmental business sector should be seen as one of the key drivers of jobs and growth to lead us out of the recession, not as an afterthought or add-on. Environmental matters are central to many voters concerns – it's a shame that political parties seem to have forgotten that."

Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of Good Energy

However, others are convinced that environmental issues could yet emerge as a somewhat surprising electoral issue, particularly at a local level.

The Green Party announced today that it would for the first time put forward a full slate of candidates for London seats and is riding high in the polls in Brighton and Cambridge with a genuine chance of securing its first parliamentary seat. I even thought about joining the Greens myself and then heard that they were all originally Marxists!!

Meanwhile, insiders have suggested that Ed Miliband's role as Labour's manifesto co-ordinator could result in many of the low carbon policies he has pioneered at the Department of Energy and Climate Change being adopted as part of the manifesto. OK we'll have to see if this taken seriously and not left out after all the fudging of figures in the name of research, the research data was about as straight as an expense claim in the House of Lords!!

In addition, Miliband has repeatedly attempted to put down the Conservative support for wind farms and renewable energy targets as an electoral issue, and the contentious topic of wind farms, as well as the credibility of the Conservatives' commitment to environmental issues, could surprise all and play a key role in the campaign.

My thoughts are some prospective MPs do not regard climate change as a significant issue.

Did we simply help overseas manufacturing profit with the scrappage allowance?

Government scrappage scheme ends

Today sees the end of British taxpayers supporting car salesmen and car makers...
What will happen to the motortrade now the crutch has been pulled away?

Could we see the infamous banks rushing in and closing down all those involved in the supply chain within the automotive sector and could this be an example of the false bottom in the current credit crunch?

Good cars and good salesmanship was replaced with buying business or as the Government say "this scheme was designed to deliver a boost to the industry at a time when it needed it most, offering a £2,000 grant to scrap an old car in exchange for a new one. It has helped to create and maintain jobs in the industry and supply chain, while helping up to 400,000 customers to
buy a new car through scrappage."

For those that travel to visit developing nations capital cities you might wonder why our fairly clean burning and roadworthy cars got scrapped as we send our old spectacles or mobile phones to third world countries the question comes …. Should we have sent our roadworthy cars to replace the pollution creating wrecks driven around in the developing world?

We could have cleaned our air and improved that of capital cities around the world

1. Latest figures show this giveaway contributed to approximately one fifth (20%) of all new car registrations since the scheme started

2. Half (54%) of scrappage buyers surveyed had never bought a new car before

3. More than half (56%) of those surveyed said they would not have bought any vehicle at this time if the scrappage scheme had not been introduced

4. Cars bought through scrappage had average CO2 emissions of 133g/km – 27% lower than the average CO2 of scrapped cars

5. The average age of cars scrapped under the scheme is just over 13 years – 90% of all cars scrapped in the scheme were between 10 and 16 years old (SMMT)

6. Government data estimates that there may have been as many as 4,000 jobs supported by the scheme at manufacturers and suppliers across UK

7. Of those surveyed 60% of car owners who bought a new vehicle under the scheme were over 60 years old

Did we simply help overseas manufacturing profit from our customers and could we have spent this money making a new sector in wind, solar or other renewables.

I know thousands of smaller companies would have been kept in business if this money was used not as a gift but as a profit making loan that could be recycled back into business once repaid…

As the retail motortrade now sees the end of the boom (boom & bust) so sinks into a slump after we will see

Should we have worked on a theory

Give a man a fish and you feed him

for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you feed

him for a lifetime

A fresh look at the UK’s innovation landscape to ensure we are maximising our potential

We have been going on about the huge potential for our existing innovation networks through universities increasingly realising the commercial potential of their research activity and RDA investment in innovation centres. But we need to learn how best to further build and consolidate this landscape. We have asked the technology entrepreneur, Hermann Hauser, to lead a review working closely with the Technology Strategy Board and BIS, to see how the UK could learn from other innovation networks, such as the Fraunhofer institutes in Germany and the Delft Centre in the Netherlands.

The UK currently has a strategic gap in its approach to investing in Technology and Innovation Centres which can play a key role in supporting the development of new technologies in areas where the following conditions prevail:

• the UK has truly world-leading research and business capability and capacity to make use of increased investment;

• the potential global markets are predicted to be worth billions of pounds per annum;

• the UK has the ability to capture a significant volume of high value activity; and

• Technology and Innovation Centres can enable the UK to attract and anchor the knowledge intensive activities of globally mobile companies.

In a resource constrained environment, difficult choices must be made to ensure sufficient support is provided to a small number of elite national Technology and Innovation Centres in technology priority areas. Like many highly successful Centres abroad, the UK can use this prioritisation to capitalise on national strengths.

The answer might have been found!

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today announced Government support for the development of a network of technology and innovation centres that will help deliver the industries and jobs of the future.

“Too often in this country we have been brilliant at research and let others walk away with the commercial benefits of development. If we are to develop new industrial capabilities in Britain, we have to get more D out of our R&D.

“Centres can play a vital role in bridging the gap between research and the market, strengthening our national capabilities in innovation.

“I am now determined that the UK builds a capability for the long term, through a more strategic and sustained approach to investing in these centres. Hauser is right that these centres need long term, predictable funding and I am committed to making that happen. I want to understand the UK's strengths, weaknesses and where there are gaps we need to invest in.”

Lord Mandelson Business Secretary

The announcement came as he accepted the recommendations of a report by technology entrepreneur Hermann Hauser, commissioned to conduct a review into how the UK could learn from other countries’ innovation networks.

The elite group of centres will help commercialise the output of the UK’s world leading research and will drive economic growth in potential high growth sectors that will emerge from commercialising technologies such as stem cells and regenerative medicine; future internet technologies; plastic electronics; software and technologies addressing renewable energy and climate change; satellite communications; fuel cells; advanced manufacturing; and composite materials. Commercialising these technologies could enable the UK to capture a significant proportion of global markets potentially worth billions of pounds.

Welcoming the report, Lord Mandelson, said it recognised the UK was strong in many technology areas and the centres to be developed would help exploit that commercially. They would take new discoveries from the point where university researchers recognise the potential for commercialisation and help develop the concepts to a stage where the private sector would be able to commercialise it.

Going for Growth

Going for Growth

The Government has published its strategy for how to return the economy to strong, sustainable, long-term growth.

• Read more about Going for Growth

The plan focuses on increasing employment, raising incomes and supporting an improving quality of life, while restoring public finances and preventing cuts to essential public services.

During a speech in London today, the Prime Minister said that ‘going for growth’ is the government’s number one priority.

“The plan we are launching today - ‘tomorrow’s prosperity’ - shows how we will do everything we can to support and unleash the entrepreneurial, innovative and dynamic talents we know we have in Britain.

Gordon Brown said as part of the strategy, the Government plans to boost support for knowledge-based industries in sectors like life sciences, medical research and pharmaceuticals.

He said the Government will invest £70 million in the three state-of-the-art manufacturing research centres to help UK businesses develop products of the future.

The Government will also invest in modern, low-carbon infrastructure and support British businesses by ensuring easier access to credit and creating a new growth fund.