Together we Stand
To achieve a sustainable future, we need to merge economic and environmental agendas. In the middle of the last decade, when political concern about climate change was at its peak, politicians liked to boast that they had severed the link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. They did not, as the impact of the global financial crisis and tentative recovery showed: emissions temporarily slowed in some places, but have now resumed their alarming growth rate. Although countries such as the UK have managed to reduce carbon pollution, this has been a product of specific policies such as switching from coal to gas for electricity generation, rather than a more fundamental sign of a shift in the economic sands. Environmental protection is another cost that many politicians and business leaders would rather avoid. Not bothering makes things cheaper. And despite the rhetoric of environmental activists, this remains an inconvenient truth, at least when it comes to the c...