Regulation is key to corporate recovery

The credit and energy crisis facing the UK reinforces the need to build a
regulated, low-carbon economy, an environmental group says.

The Green Foundations paper compiled by
Aldersgate
Group ­ whose members include BT and Tesco ­ argues that green
regulation is vital if the UK is to make an economic recovery from recession. It
suggests that to develop a low-carbon economy, companies must become
resource-efficient and carbon prices need to be accurately reflected in the
marketplace.

It also says those businesses with strategies aimed at long-term value
require more regulation to address emerging challenges with certainty and to
enable them to be more competitive.

“[Recessional] challenges reinforce the need to accelerate the transition to
a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy and align economic, environmental and
societal impacts,” says Peter Young, Aldersgate Group chairman. “De-regulatory
pressures can be short-sighted and detrimental to long-term economic stability.”

Company guidelines
The report set out some guiding principles for companies to follow:

• Bringing capital assets on to the balance sheet;
• Systematically addressing environmental performance as one of the most
  cost-effective measures businesses can undertake to boost competitiveness; and
• Developing an industrial strategy with planned support for ‘green’
  technology, to build jobs and expertise in the future.

Adrian Wilkes, chairman of the Environmental Industries Commission, says,
“Investing in the talent of the European Union’s environmental technology
industry is vital if we are to avoid climate change and ecological crisis that
would make today’s financial crisis seem like a tea party.”