I was on quite a different kind of boat this morning, courtesy of Greenpeace, and not a Russian billionaire in sight. Very interesting seminar on clean energy and trip in a speedboat down the Thames (which was completely gratuitous - but great fun.) Was given a tour of the boat by a Canadian guy who has been working on their boats for 20 years but has only just come back onto the Rainbow Warrior; he said last time he'd been on it was in 1995, when he was hauled off and arrested by the French authorities. Also had a very interesting chat with Greenpeace people about taking their campaign forward; how it shouldn't just be about what they're against (they're off to Kingsnorth next) but about "the Ask" as we politicos say. If they had ten minutes in a room with Ed Miliband, no point in wasting it identifying the problem, or in arguing the toss on things like Kingsnorth, nuclear, airport expansion (which doesn't mean to say there's no point in debating those - just that Ed has already heard it). What key, incremental steps do they want him to take? We've got the targets, we've got the pledges - so what next? Some interesting ideas were tossed around, which I might return to... but I have two hours before I have to set sail for Bristol and have promised to clear the desk and deal with all my emails before I go. (Which is going to take a lot longer than that!)
3 comments:
"I was on quite a different kind of boat this morning, courtesy of Greenpeace, and not a Russian billionaire in sight."
I bet that the amount of lobbying going on was pretty similar though, Kerry...
DK
They didn't actually go for the hard sell - it was mostly suggesting how the Government could meet its renewables target, on which they were preaching to the converted anyway (it being a SERA gathering). And I have no problem with being lobbied by groups like Greenpeace, Oxfam, Worldvision, Save the Children, etc. I want to know what they want politicians to do.
Greenpeace have often been very clear what they are for as well as what they are against. Take a look on their website at the EfficienCity multimedia presentation about decentralised energy for instance:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/efficiencity/index.html
(or click on the link on my blog)
Global carbon emissions need to peak and begin to decline in less than 10 yrs. Major investment in EfficienCity style developments all across the UK would be both good for the environment and great for he economy given its current dire state. Where is Keynes when you need him??
Post a Comment