EU 2030 targets a ‘good’ step forward, but Brussels premature to get overly narcissistic

On 23 October, member states sealed a deal that commits the EU two binding targets: (1) To cut carbon emissions by at least 40% at 1990’s level; (2) To drive renewables in its energy mix up to at least 27%; and  a non-binding target to curb its energy use by at least 27% by 2030. The EU 2030 package is hailed as a ‘good’ step forward, but not yet a ‘great’ step towards the UN climate negotiations in Paris (COP 21) next year. Amid late night applause of state leaders at Brussels, French President François Hollande said the deal would “send a clear message to big polluters such as China and the United States…to agree on a global legally binding agreement.” His remark could be a motion of debate.

Climate-Resilient Agriculture and Food Security: New Network Capabilities to Solve Global Problems

The digital revolution is creating new capabilities to solve an old problem. Four case studies of global solution networks—two networking platforms, a standards network and a knowledge network—demonstrate how an emerging problem-solving approach can fundamentally transform global food governance.

Download my white paper here.

A third party - Global Food Safety Resource Centre - has given a review of this policy paper. Read it here.

EU’s energy security is about self-help, not seek-out

Amid escalating tension with Russia over Ukraine, Brussels centres on shale gas and non-Russian gas imports in its new energy security strategy unveiled in May this year. However, I cast great doubt that either the crisis is being used as a pretext to re-carbonise Europe’s energy sector, or the strategy document deplorably reflects how Brussels still pits emissions target and energy security goals against each other but favouring the latter. In the green and digital age, the key to accomplishing both missions, which should not be mutually exclusive, is empowering the people to empower themselves – proliferating “community-owned renewable energy schemes” in the EU, rather than revisiting the outmoded, high-carbon formula to secure energy supplies.

Stimulating green growth through donor-business partnerships in developing countries

This scoping report discusses different models of partnership between donors and businesses to promote green growth, and presents a number of examples of different kinds of approaches that have been adopted.

The paper reviews a series of case studies drawn from developing countries around the world, showcasing different partnerships adopted between business and donors.

Download my report here.

Email me at alastair.t.marke@gmail.com  

Risk Waiver: Closing the protection gap and easing the flow of credit

Lending to UK consumers and businesses has stagnated over the last five years. The credit our businesses and households rely upon to prosper is simply not as available as it needs to be.

Recent polls illustrate that consumer confidence has been running at low levels since the recession and have remained stubbornly low since. This lack of confidence ultimately bears out in consumer spending levels, which are currently still 3.9 per cent down on pre-recession levels. Also, taken as an average, workers are in real terms earning no more than they were ten years ago. Given that consumer spending in total comprises 65 per cent of UK GDP, a relaxation of credit constrains would have a substantial impact on economic growth and household earnings.

Designers to be the ‘angels’ for the world’s poor

‘People, Profit, Planet’, or 3Ps, are the yardsticks by which modern designers draw on their sketchbooks if they design products, services or systems for the sake of sustainable development in which everybody in the (derelict) community shares the benefits of their innovation. In the interest of global well-being, this is arguably the course for the design industry in the new era because its potential to contribute to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals is immense. Be it, regrettably, yet to become a norm for the entire industry because leading voices on sustainable design are lacking, as Seymourpowell’s Chris Sherwin indicates in his recent article. Indeed are such voices really lacking or simply not penetrating enough?

‘Community Energy’ under a siege by London and Brussels

In a seminar on community energy held in Westminster last week, many agreed that the potential for ‘community energy’ in the UK is massive. Some speakers shared their experience in the rigorous battle with finance and planning regulations at the start-up stage of their community-owned energy schemes. Following on from such discussions, we could also ask to what extent ‘community energy’ can be financed in the existing framework set by the commission in Brussels, which has been leading our ‘greenest ever’ government in London by the nose. 

Financing ‘Community Energy’: Why do legal structures and a green bank matter?

Amid the threats of soaring energy prices and global climate change, it gives us every reason to go ahead with ‘Energy Localism’ – community sustainable energy projects – which can stimulate local green growth and motivate a ‘Big Society’. Unless you are lucky enough to have a hidden goldmine in your community, it is often the financiers, not any business angels, who can give an energy project the green light. A legal structure or company model often carries too many implications.