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I am struck by how much people know about what's going on with our environment but how little is actually being done to combat climate change
Having recently chaired the 15th Annual Members' Conference of the Institute of Car Fleet Management (ICFM), held at The Honda Institute in Colnbrook, I am struck by how much people know about what's going on with our environment but how little is actually being done to combat climate change.
As environmental transport advisor, Don Potts declared, "it's not too late for the world to change but time is running out!"
The conference theme was 'Drive Less - Achieve More' and last-minute keynote speaker, Colin Challen, Labour MP and chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, certainly rose to his topic of 'Climate Change - The Challenge.'
We may be the only country in the world to have a Climate Change Bill but the government target of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 is way too low - it needs to be 80% or higher. Indeed, Alistair Darling has just announced in his budget that Government is to seek advice as to whether it can be raised to 80%!
Colin really caught the mood by highlighting President Roosevelt's declaration of 6 January 1942, "Let no man say it cannot be done!" Roosevelt didn't ask the US motor manufacturers to help produce the mass weapons of war - tanks, planes, etc, he told them! They didn't produce another car for civilian use for another three and a half years.
Closer to home, we built 6000 miles of railway in just seven years in the mid-19th century. We can achieve great things if we set our mind to it, and have the incentive (to win a war) or the ambition (create a rail network).
Tim Anderson, fleet advice manager at The Energy Saving Trust, pointed out that advice and information plays just as important a role as new technology and market incentives in reducing a company's carbon footprint while Mark Cowling, business development director of CAP, advised fleet operators not to be afraid of adding hybrid vehicles to their fleets. CAP forecasts the trend for residual values to rise to continue, with hybrid vehicles doing just as well as petrol and diesel equivalents.
Don Potts closed the conference by putting matters into perspective. It was not by accident that Greenland was named just that by the Vikings. They grew wheat on the land, with not an acre of ice in sight! Indeed, the Chinese sailed around the Arctic Circle in the 12th century. So there have been rises and falls in global temperatures since the Earth was created as evidenced by deep bore ice analysis.
Nor is everything concerned with CO2. Just as important is air quality, with 20,000 respiratory deaths per year recorded in the UK alone. It's no accident that you don't find diesels in the USA or Japan. They know what pollutants are emitted. According to Potts, 130 UK cities are adopting an air quality strategy and we may eventually see 'no go' areas in town and city centres. They already have them in Sweden, with only hybrids and biofuel vehicles allowed in.
As I've highlighted in my column several times before, there are concerns over the ascendency of biofuels and Potts shares those reservations. If the world's forests are responsible for absorbing 85% of CO2, the last thing we want is to cut them down to grow crops for biofuel production!
All manner of EU, Government and local authority actions are in place or planned to combat climate change but in the greater scheme of things they are a mere drop in water.
What we need is a new FDR to rise up and declare what everyone knows needs to be done and grab the whole problem by the scruff of the neck. Who better placed than Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General. It's about time the United Nations came to the fore. However, judging by its ineffective role in Darfur, don't hold your breath.
Remember those words, "Let no man say it cannot be done!"
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