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Dealing with carbon regulations

While the Obama administration is moving fast to break with eight years of "climate denial" under George Bush, the UK government seems to have lost its early focus on introducing climate change regulations. Jyoti Banerjee investigates.

For a time, a year or so ago, it looked as if UK companies would be required to meet mandatory regulations on carbon emissions. But the focus seems to have been lost, under pressure from business lobby groups that are concerned about the impact such regulations will have on British companies. Instead, UK companies are urged to report their carbon emissions following recommended guidelines, and the soonest we will have a carbon regulatory framework will now be 2010, when only Britain's largest companies will have to meet the forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) mandatory framework.

The Americans are still debating the merits of carbon trading schemes versus carbon taxes, with carbon trading, based on existing EU schemes, gaining ground among policy-makers. Right now, no one really knows what the Obama administration will seek to put in place but it is quite certain that whatever happens in the US will be felt over here in the UK.

Say no to bank bonuses!

Britain's bankers are planning to reward themselves with billions in bonuses out of their bail-out funds. Should they be allowed to get away with this? Jyoti Banerjee says most emphatically not.

Let me say this as plainly as I can: Britain’s bailed-out bankers should not get a bonus. 

It must be a morally-corrosive atmosphere in Britain’s banks if their senior management are prepared to pay out bonuses in the billions of pounds a few short weeks after these banks have been bailed out by the public purse.  Their argument is two-fold – they need to reward those who did a good job, and they need to hang on to the talent needed to rebuild Britain’s banks.

Their PR message seems to be getting across to some quarters since even Chancellor Alastair Darling, arguably the closest thing we have to an owner of the near-nationalised banks, is parroting the same worn spiel. 

Both arguments are a nonsense. 

Trepidation and quiet confidence

Medium-sized businesses’ ability to deploy game-changing IT will help them withstand the recession, as delegates at Information Age’s IT for the M Business conference discovered. M Institute co-hosted the conference and Jyoti Banerjee listened in on the discussion.

Information Age's Pete Swabey reports that the current economic crisis will hit medium businesses the hardest. He came to this view listening to the proceedings at the recent IT for the M Business conference. Swabey says, "They have neither the agility of small businesses, which can change tack at the drop of a hat, nor the economies of scale of corporations, many of whom have the cash to sit tight and weather the storm."

As M Institute has often noted, medium businesses (unlike their smaller brethren) are prepared to invest in sophisticated IT, and have a real appreciation of what IT can do to enable the business to scale efficiently. But unlike large organisations, Swabey notes that "mid-sized business don’t have the luxury of getting it wrong or experimenting: IT projects need to be 100% tied to the achievement of business goals, with an intense focus on payback and benefits."

Medium-sized businesses’ ability to deploy game-changing IT will help them withstand the recession, as delegates at Information Age’s IT for the M Business conference discovered. M Institute co-hosted the conference and Jyoti Banerjee listened in on the discussion.

Information Age's Pete Swabey reports that the current economic crisis will hit medium businesses the hardest. He came to this view listening to the proceedings at the recent IT for the M Business conference. Swabey says, "They have neither the agility of small businesses, which can change tack at the drop of a hat, nor the economies of scale of corporations, many of whom have the cash to sit tight and weather the storm."

As M Institute has often noted, medium businesses (unlike their smaller brethren) are prepared to invest in sophisticated IT, and have a real appreciation of what IT can do to enable the business to scale efficiently. But unlike large organisations, Swabey notes that "mid-sized business don’t have the luxury of getting it wrong or experimenting: IT projects need to be 100% tied to the achievement of business goals, with an intense focus on payback and benefits."

Mumbai's 8/11 presents challenges of co-ordinated security

Mumbai's 8/11 is emblematic of a lack of security co-ordination across city, national and private sector organisations. Jyoti Banerjee examines the lessons that the West can learn from Mumbai's 8/11.

Mumbai’s terror attacks at the end of November have created a deep sense of sadness and loss among Indians everywhere. The pictures on TV screens showing casually-dressed young men casually spreading violence and death have been more upsetting than the anonymous bomb blasts that have characterised terrorist attacks in India till now. More than ever, it is possible to reflect on the continuing truth in Barack Obama’s words, spoken about the New York terrorists in 2001: "My powers of empathy, my ability to reach into another's heart, cannot penetrate the blank stares of those who would murder innocents with such abstract, serene satisfaction."

But there is also a growing resolve across the country that India should not be such a soft target for terrorist action. It certainly seems to lack any sort of co-ordinated structure or system that can deal with credible threats and prosecute them with any urgency. Security agencies around the world are already competing for bragging rights regarding who was first to inform the Indians that a sea-borne attack on Mumbai was imminent.

Do we need the RDAs?

The Taxpayers' Alliance would like the regional development agencies abolished. Jyoti Banerjee studies their report - he likes their data but disagrees with their recommendation.

This month a report from the TaxPayers’ Alliance claims that the £15 billion spent on the Regional Development Agencies since their creation in 1999 has been a total waste as the RDAs have contributed absolutely nothing to the economic performance of the regions in the UK.

The TPA report has three main planks of evidence:
1) The RDAs were created to improve the performance of the regions, particularly those outside London and the south-east. In 1992, London and the south-east contributed 36% of the UK economy, a figure that has grown (in the wrong direction) to 48% in 2006.
2) Employment across the country grew by 9.5% between 1995 and 2000, while it only grew by 3% between 2000 and 2005.
3) Regional inequality worsened: apart from London and the south-east, England’s regions grew faster before the RDAs were around, compared to the seven years after.

To add to this lack of performance is a long account of RDA waste. For example, 39 RDA bureaucrats earn over £100,000 a year, one part-time RDA chairman had a travel expense bill of over £50,000 in a single year, and one RDA managed to spend £20,000 sending some of their team to a film festival in Dubai.

Medium enterprise and the low-carbon economy

Climate change, whether you believe in it or not, is going to change every business on the planet, either by force of regulation, or by a competitive drive towards low-carbon business models. Medium enterprises have a great opportunity to be the next generation of big winners in a future low-carbon economy. Or big losers. Jyoti Banerjee investigates the balance of probability.

Last week BBC Radio 4 featured an interview with a Canadian academic who has developed a prosthetic knee that generates electricity every time the knee flexes. It’s a great idea for helping provide power to disabled people but it turns out that there are other applications as well. The military could generate electricity for their communications devices while walking. And the rest of us could walk around to power up our iPods, mobiles and GPS units.

Walking to generate electricity is not going to turn back the tide on climate change but it is just one more example of the way clean-technology approaches are gaining traction in the market.

Medium enterprises are probably as concerned as everybody else about climate change but many executives of such organisations that I have met wonder what they can do to really make a difference. After all, the industries that have to make the biggest changes to their carbon productivity, such as energy, transport and heavy industry, are usually not populated with medium enterprises. Executives in medium enterprises agonise over installing efficient heating, or motion sensors to switch lighting in less-used locations like toilets because they know that these things make good business sense anyway, but surely none of these are going to tackle the problem of climate change.