Welcome to my second blog! What is it that made me put pen to paper or fingertips on key board this time?

The Climate Commission Wales ventured to Bangor and WISE Network (www.wisenetwork.org) hosted a breakfast as an opportunity for the Commissioners and local business to discuss ways forward for ‘green’ growth.

It’s been obvious for a long time that words like ‘green’ and ‘sustainability’ mean many things to many people. Rarely do they address the real issue, which is that we have the resources of one planet, that there isn’t a planet B. We are so locked into our current economic model that almost everyone, in public at least, want to be seen to be ‘realistic’ – i.e. business as usual with dab of green on it somewhere (as long as it doesn’t get in the way of ‘job creation’ or increase in GDP and so on). Continue reading →

Show me the pattern…

I spent the day yesterday with a room full of worthy and well meaning people like myself who had given up a day to help shape the proposed Sustainable Development Bill. The minister, John Griffiths, opened they day with the usual introduction –

• Wales is one the first nation to have a legal requirement to adopt sustainable development as its organising principle;
• the Welsh government, whatever its colour is required to produce a scheme outlining how it intends to fulfil this requirement;
• the government will report annually on that scheme, however, until now there is no legal duty to produce a good scheme or a way of enforcing others to adopt sustainability as their organising principle.

Continue reading →