nef | ukwatch.net

Aviation's fossil-fuelled fantasies

tim — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:56:06 +0000

Today, as UN World Tourism Day focuses on climate change, new research says economic case for airport expansion is unfounded, and international tourism is more of a risk than a benefit for developing nations.

A new report from nef (the new economics foundation) and the World Development Movement released today, Saturday 27 September, UN World Tourism Day, reveals that increased air travel and tourism leaves UK taxpayers out of pocket, and benefits multinational tour operators and hotel chains, rather than poor people. And, as the fastest-rising source of emissions in the UK, aviation is a significant contributor to climate change that threatens the survival of some of the world’s poorest communities least responsible for causing the problem, but living on its front line.

The new nef/WDM report, Plane Truths exposes the ‘fossil-fuelled fantasies’ behind airline bosses and government ministers’ claims that continued growth of the aviation industry strengthens the UK economy, does not undermine the emissions reductions needed to avert catastrophic climate change and can play a positive role in the fight against global poverty.

Fossil-fuelled fantasy 1: Airlines claim that cheap air fares ‘democratise’ foreign travel. The reality is that highest earners still travel most frequently.
People on low incomes who make up 32 per cent of the UK population, account for less than 8 per cent of all passengers on low-cost flights from the UK, while 40 per cent of all budget flights are taken by the wealthiest people in the UK.

Fossil-fuelled fantasy 2: Airlines claim that tourism is developing countries boost economic development. The reality is the benefits from UK tourism to communities in far-flung destinations are minimal because:

* the vast majority of British tourists travel to short haul destinations like Spain or France, or industrialised countries such as the United States, while only nine per cent of UK tourists go to the developing world.
* When tourists do visit the developing world, up to 75 pence in every £1 spent goes straight into the pockets of multinational hotel chains and tour operators, not to the local economy.
* Evidence from Kenya, Thailand and the Dominican Republic suggests that if the growth in UK aviation was halted, the impact of lost revenue would represent less than one per cent of GDP.
* And, for the Maldives, where the contribution of tourism to the economy has been more significant, the Islands very survival is under threat from rising sea-levels

Fossil-fuelled fantasy 3: Airlines and the government claim that the aviation industry strengthens the UK economy. The reality is that, in 2007 the aviation industry left UK taxpayers 10.4 billion in the red.

* The World Development Movement has calculated £10.4 billion was lost to the Exchequer in 2007 as the result of tax exemptions for the airline industry. This is more than twice the £5 billion needed to ensure that every home in Britain is properly insulated, helping to combat both climate change and fuel poverty – going far beyond recent government announcements.

“As people world-wide feel the impact of the credit crunch, the UK government is sleep-walking into a climate-crunch, riding high on the fossil-fuel fantasies of the aviation industry. It is time for the government to wake up. Time is short. There could be less than one hundred months to prevent catastrophic, runaway climate change. Conventional economists claim that a rising tide lifts all boats, but the plain truth is that long before the minimal benefits of economic growth, particularly from air-based tourism bring any improvement to the lives of people living in some of the world’s poorest countries, they will be sunk by the floodwaters of runaway climate change.” says Dr Victoria Johnson, nef climate change researcher and the report’s co-author.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement said: “Poor people in the developing world will be hit first and worst by climate change and international tourism does little, if anything, to alleviate poverty – so the myths peddled by the government and the aviation industry are simply a fig leaf to justify aviation expansion. Exposing and opposing these myths is essential if we are to help to prevent hundreds of millions of people around the world from losing their lives and livelihoods.”

And, as Plane Truths reveals, the majority of tourism takes place within, rather than between regions. This means that investment in better regional transport infrastructure will play a critical role in reducing emissions while maintaining the many cultural, and local economic benefits that tourism can deliver.

The report finds that policy measures to date, such as Air Passenger Duty (APD) in the UK and the European Union (EU)‘s emissions trading scheme, will have little impact on the strong and environmentally destructive growth trend in aviation. The report argues that government must also show leadership, by taking action to reduce emissions from aviation, and include them in the climate change bill; halting planned airport expansion; and ensuring that proposed taxes on flights is set at a high enough rate to reduce demand for short-haul flights:

* The Climate Change Bill currently passing through parliament must be amended to include emissions from shipping and aircraft. The emissions reduction target should also be increased to 80-90 per cent below 1990 levels, in line with the most recent scientific evidence.
* When Airline Passenger Duty is replaced by a flight tax next year, it must be set at a proportionately higher for short-haul flights than long-haul, since aircraft burn most fuel during taxi, take-off and landing, and alternative methods of transport are often available
* The funds generated from this tax should be earmarked for investment in better rail connections, and to funds to help people in developing countries adapt to the degree of climate change that is already happening.

Misguided Efficiency Focus Harming Vulnerable Children

Ellie Keen — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:59:00 +0000

nef‘s research suggests that the Government and some local authorities are claiming to endorse a ‘Child-Centred’ approach while making cuts that betray a lack of understanding of what young people in care really need and value. And as nef‘s research shows, this lack of understanding will inevitably lead to long-term social and economic costs. Behind the dramatic headlines about failing care homes and delinquent young people, good providers of residential care services face being pushed out in the drive to cut costs.

nef applied ‘Social Return on Investment’ (SROI) analysis to the work of two of the UK’s well-regarded care homes – Bryn Melyn Care Ltd, with homes in Shropshire and in South Wales and Shaftsbury Young People in London. The analysis reveals the true value of the services provided by the care homes:

Between £4 and £6.10 worth of additional social value is generated for every additional pound invested in higher-quality residential care.

Almost £700 million could be saved over a 20-year period on other social costs by investment in the right kind of residential care – enough to pay for the country’s entire annual care bill for children in care.

Providers of quality care could almost double what they charge each week and it would still represent a positive return via the benefits and costs savings delivered in the long-term through the prevention of negative knock-on social and economic costs.

Balancing public spending between more visible, vote-winning public services, such as roads and refuse collection, and residential care are choices that go to the heart of what we value as a society; the efficiency savings targets being imposed on Local Authorities are increasingly forcing them to focus on narrow, short-term financial gains rather than long-term gain. And, the consequences of cost-saving decisions made now, will be borne by vulnerable groups and future generations.

“The government is attempting to promote a ‘child-centred’ approach whilst at the same time being seduced by an efficiency myth, effectively supporting a new ‘trade’ in children. If we allow this to continue and fail to deliver for these vulnerable children now, a range of public services will inevitably pick up the tab in the future. We urgently need a new model of investment in care, one that values the long-term benefits delivered to society as a whole.” says Eilís Lawlor, nef researcher and author of the report.

The cost-cutting environment in which the care providers analysed in nef‘s report operate is talking its toll. One of the providers included in the research, Shaftesbury Young People, recently lost out on a contract because it could not compete on price. Activities that promote children’s well-being are seen as being ‘nice to have’ rather than essential, and providers are forced to slim down their services so that they can compete on price.

A False Economy presents a number of recommendations that would, if implemented, provide a new public benefit model for investment in care, one that recognises the outcomes delivered, rather than ‘outputs’ or efficiencies, as the key to improving services. Crucially, it would seek to involve young people as co-producers rather than mere consumers of public services.

Commissioning of residential care services should be designed to value positive long-term outcomes as opposed to short-term cost savings. To achieve this, government should:

Rethink the savings targets imposed on local authorities after the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, and then establish a system in which providers cost their services and local authorities purchase those services that are most suitable. This approach is used in several European countries, where residential children’s homes are run by the independent sector.

Remove performance indicators that create perverse incentives in decision making that favour bigger, cheaper services and replace them with outcomes measures that recognise the value of specialised providers in delivering essential services. In particular, the current pre-occupation with risk must be re-balanced alongside other considerations so that it no longer crowds-out quality and long-term outcomes.

Introduce incentives for local authorities to pursue ‘public benefit’, even if it does not directly benefit their area of control.

Residential care should be designed around the principles of co-production, with young people themselves playing a full and active part in shaping services:

The use of residential care as a last resort needs to be reconsidered. Better use of residential care as a positive option can improve outcomes for many young people.

Young people should be fully involved in the design, delivery and measurement of services. nef recommends that services are developed and delivered in new ways that break down the barriers between clients and recipients, and between producers and consumers of services.

There needs to be a clearer picture of where value is being created, in ways that contribute to strategic planning, permeates management systems and shapes the organisation’s actions.

New measurement systems should be embedded in the strategic planning process of care providers and local authorities to ensure that performance is monitored meaningfully, and that services deliver positive long-term outcomes for young people.

“There are real world benefits of investing in good residential care where this is needed: a safe and secure future for young people, better chances of getting a job and contributing to society. These things don’t show up on the balance sheet today- local authorities currently have no framework for seeing the real costs, or the real benefits. This report shows how to put what matters back at the heart of the way services are commissioned and delivered, and reap the benefits in the long run.” Concludes Eilís Lawlor

Download the report A False Economy

Crisis Demands a "Green New Deal"

Tim Holmes — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:52:04 +0000

UK needs ‘Green New Deal’ to tackle ‘triple crunch’ of credit, oil price and climate crises

On the first anniversary of Northern Rock falsely reassuring markets, and 75 years since President Roosevelt launched a New Deal to rescue the US from financial crisis, a new group of experts in finance, energy and the environment have come together to propose a ‘Green New Deal’ for the UK.

And, as the Green New Deal Group launch their proposals, new analysis suggests that from the end of July 2008 there is only 100 months, or less, to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before we hit a potential point of no return.

The Green New Deal is a response to the credit crunch and wider energy and food crises, and to the lack of comprehensive, joined-up action from politicians. It calls for:

• Massive investment in renewable energy and wider environmental transformation in the UK, leading to,
• The creation of thousands of new green collar jobs
• Reining in reckless aspects of the finance sector – but making low-cost capital available to fund the UK’s green economic shift
• Building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture, and unions to put the interests of the real economy ahead of those of footloose finance

The global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’: a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by encroaching peak oil. It is increasingly clear that these three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression, with potentially devastating consequences.

As in past times of crises, disparate groups have come together to propose a new solution to an epochal challenge. The Green New Deal Group, drawing inspiration from the tone of President Roosevelt’s comprehensive response to the Great Depression, propose a modernised version, a ‘Green New Deal’ designed to power a renewables revolution, create thousands of green-collar jobs and rein in the distorting power of the finance sector while making more low-cost capital available for pressing priorities.

Seventy-five years ago, Roosevelt’s courageous programme was implemented in an unprecedented ‘100-days of lawmaking’. And, as the Green New Deal Group launch their proposals, new analysis suggests that from the end of July 2008 there is only 100 months, or less, to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before we hit a potential point of no return. This is the moment when the likelihood of irreversible changes in the climate becomes unacceptably high.

The most serious global crisis since the Great Depression calls for serious reform the like of which has not, yet, been considered by politicians. This entails re-regulating finance and taxation plus a huge transformational programme aimed at substantially reducing the use of fossil fuels and, in the process, tackling the unemployment and decline in demand caused by the credit crunch. It involves policies and new funding mechanisms that will reduce emissions and allow us to cope better with the coming energy shortages caused by peak oil.

International in outlook, the Green New Deal requires action at local, national, regional and global levels. Focusing first on the specific needs of the UK, the Green New Deal outlines an interlocking programme of action that will require an ambitious legislative programme backed by a bold new alliance of industry, agriculture, labour and environmentalists.

In the midst of unfolding global crises, as Parliament rises on 22 July, the Green New Deal Group challenges government to go away, do its homework, and come back in the Autumn with a comprehensive legislative programme equivalent to that implemented by Roosevelt 75 years ago – a ‘Green New Deal’.

Proposal’s set out in the Group’s report include:

• Executing a bold new vision for a low-carbon energy system that will include making ‘every building a power station’.
• Creating and training a ‘carbon army’ of workers to provide the human resources for a vast environmental reconstruction programme.
• Establishing an Oil Legacy Fund, paid for by a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies as part of a wide-ranging package of financial innovations and incentives to assemble the tens of billions of pounds that need to be spent. These would also include Local Authority green bonds, green gilts and green family savings bonds. The monies raised would help deal with the effects of climate change and smooth the transition to a low-carbon economy.
• Ensuring more realistic fossil fuel prices that include the cost to the environment, and that are high enough to tackle climate change by creating economic incentives to drive efficiency and bring alternative fuels to market. This will provide funding for the Green New Deal and safety nets to those vulnerable to higher prices via rapidly rising carbon taxes and revenue from carbon trading.
• Minimising corporate tax evasion by clamping down on tax havens and corporate financial reporting. A range of measures including deducting tax at source for all income paid to financial institutions in tax havens would provide much-needed sources of public finance at a time when economic contraction is reducing conventional tax receipts.
• Re-regulating the domestic financial system. Inspired by reforms implemented in the 1930s, this would imply cutting interest rates across the board– including the reduction of the Bank of England’s interest rate – and changes in debt-management policy to enable reductions in interest rates across all government borrowing. This is designed to help those borrowing to build a new energy and transport infrastructure. In parallel, to prevent inflation, we want to see much tighter regulation of the wider financial environment.
• Breaking up the discredited financial institutions that have needed so much public money to prop them up in the latest credit crunch. Large banking and finance groups should be forcibly demerged. Retail banking should be split from both corporate finance (merchant banking) and from securities dealing. The demerged units should then be split into smaller banks. Mega banks make mega mistakes that affect us all. Instead of institutions that are ‘too big to fail’, we need institutions that are small enough to fail without creating problems for depositors and the wider public.

The Green New Deal Group urges the UK Government to take action at the international level to help build the orderly, well-regulated and supportive policy and financial environment that is required to restore economic stability and nurture environmental sustainability, including:

• Allowing all nations far greater autonomy over domestic monetary policy (interest rates and money supply) and fiscal policy (government spending and taxation).
• Setting a formal international target for atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations that keeps future temperature rises as far below 2°C as possible.
• Giving poorer countries the opportunity to escape poverty without fuelling global warming by helping to finance massive investment in climate-change adaptation and renewable energy.

In this way the members of the Green New Deal Group believe we can begin to stabilise the current crisis, and lay the foundations for the emergence of a set of resilient low carbon economies, rich in jobs and based on independent sources of energy supply.

The Green New Deal will rekindle a vital sense of purpose, restoring public trust and refocusing the use of capital on public priorities and sustainability. In this way it can also help deliver a wide range of social benefits that can greatly improve quality of life in the future. There is also an immediate imperative to restore some faith that society can survive the dreadful threats it now faces as a result of the triple crunch.

Beyond that, the Group’s members believe we can deliver a crucial national plan for a low-energy future and its provision on the ground. The absence of any such plan at present leaves the country very vulnerable.

The Green New Deal Group is, in alphabetical order:

Larry Elliott, Economics Editor of the Guardian,

Colin Hines,Co-Director of Finance for the Future, former head of Greenpeace International’s Economics Unit,

Tony Juniper, former Director of Friends of the Earth,

Jeremy Leggett, founder and Chairman of Solarcentury and SolarAid,

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP,

Richard Murphy, Co-Director of Finance for the Future and Director, Tax Research LLP,

Ann Pettifor, former head of the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign, Campaign Director of Operation Noah,

Charles Secrett, Advisor on Sustainable Development, former Director of Friends of the Earth,

Andrew Simms, Policy Director, nef (the new economics foundation).

Hitting the Target, Missing the Point

Ellie Keen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:18:57 +0000

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, inequality has reached levels not seen in the UK for over 40 years¹. Despite decades of economic regeneration programmes in low-income communities, our place of birth continues to be a major predictor of the jobs we do, our health and life expectancy, and the income we earn².

Why this research?

This report from nef (the new economics foundation) asks why inequality is increasing when investment in deprived areas is growing. It is not only an important question to ask but also a timely one as the Government is pumping significant funding into regeneration initiatives in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Focusing on the experience of St Helens metropolitan borough on Merseyside, our research suggests that the methods used by policy makers to measure the success of Local Economic Growth Initiatives (LEGIs) , although an improvement on what went before, are still inadequate. A more sophisticated approach is needed for the shortcomings of successive regeneration programmes to be understood and overcome.

Prior to LEGI, the evaluations attached to regeneration programmes tended to focus mainly on quantitative economic outputs, such as the numbers of jobs and enterprises created and people trained³. But projects can be successful on these terms without changing underlying inequalities. This report argues that the approach taken to evaluations has relied too heavily on two flawed assumptions – that outputs provide a true measurement of change, and that there is necessarily a direct cause-and-effect relationship between investment and the achievement of policy objectives.

Insufficiently robust evaluations have led to a perpetuation of similar types of initiatives. The outcomes required to address inequality have rarely been achieved, and governments have potentially exaggerated the improvements secured by their investments.

Although LEGI is more outcomes-focussed, the research raised further questions about the extent to which improvements were likely to be attributable to the investment from this programme. Given the scale of the task that a programme like LEGI has undertaken, a more sophisticated approach is needed for the shortcomings of successive regeneration programmes to be understood and overcome.

The research upon which this report is based was conducted under nef’s Measuring What Matters programme. Measuring What Matters was established to investigate how government policy making might be improved by measuring and valuing what matters most to people, communities, the environment and local economies. nef has a track record in working with communities to develop radical solutions to the problems created by the shortcomings of the macro-economic system. For example, its Clone Town work looked at the impact on communities of a reduction in the diversity of shops and services; and its Plugging the Leaks initiative shows how money spent locally can continue to benefit people through a local multiplier effect⁴.

It was through projects such as these that the need for a new approach to measuring change became apparent. The objectives of nef’s research in St Helen’s have been to evaluate current methods of measurement, to suggest alternatives, and to try to achieve a more rounded measurement of social return on investment (SROI) that will be applicable not only to local enterprise investment but also to other areas of public policy.

The approach

Measuring What Matters advocates a long-term, transparent approach to measurement in which a central role is played by local communities – the people on the receiving end of the investment. Policy decisions are often driven by considerations of where governments can make financial savings. In contrast SROI advocates a triple bottom line approach in which environmental and social impacts are evaluated alongside economic benefits. In SROI analysis an attempt is made to measure and value the things that really matter to people as well as those things that are easy to count, or that are traded in the market place.

SROI analysis culminates in a ratio, or ‘social value’, generated for investment. More importantly, however, SROI tells the story of how value is created. It is designed to inspire those delivering and using services to engage with the change to which their work contributes.

The policy

Until recently the Local Enterprise Growth initiative (LEGI) was the government’s flagship economic development programme. It aimed to transform deprived communities by raising levels of enterprise and employment, and by fostering entrepreneurial and work-oriented aspirations. It was different from its predecessors in that its programmes were designed to operate over a longer period (10 years) and were more focused on outcomes. For each programme central government specified the outcomes it wanted to see and it was up to local authorities to determine how those outcomes would be achieved.
While this research was taking place a restructure at the Department for Communities and Local Government saw the creation of a new regeneration programme – the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) – which means that no additional rounds of LEGI will be announced. It is intended, however, that the WNF will have a strong enterprise focus. Lessons from this research may offer much to inform the design and monitoring of the new fund.

The scope

St Helens is the 47th most deprived borough in the UK⁵. This is only the first year of a long-term study in the borough. After one year we can measure changes in enterprise and employment in St Helens but it is not possible to take a view on whether these changes are the result of activities funded by the LEGI. Instead, we have made some projections for the ‘social return’ we could expect to see at the end of three years. At this stage, therefore the findings focus on what we have learned from the process as well as qualitative findings from conversations with a range of stakeholders.

The findings

Our research has found that if St Helens LEGI were to meet its goals in the first three years, this would represent a social return of 14:1, or £14 worth of social value for every £1 invested. This is based on achievement of all the expected outcomes and projecting these over eight years⁶. Where the indicator of the outcome does not already have a market value, financial proxies have been used. In future years the intention is to compare the actual return against this projection.

As well as the headline outcomes of increasing local enterprise, employment and self-employment, our research modelled a range of other benefits that local people believed would flow from getting more people into work – such as improvements in health, crime and quality of life. However, only those things for which there were sufficient data on which to base calculations were included in the social return projections. According to these calculations, the main recipients of the value generated by the LEGI will be people who are economically inactive.

The SROI projections are at present based on absolute rather than relative numbers, for example the value of jobs to people, rather than the value of reducing inequality, irrespective of how many jobs are created⁷. The next update will be based on a more sophisticated approach that measures and monetises the value of the improved social outcomes that a more equal society brings about, and uses that to derive the calculations.

We also looked at the issue of valuing equity in relation to those experiencing more acute exclusion, such as women and people on incapacity benefit (IB). When we weighted the benefits to these groups more heavily we found that the social return ratio for these groups was similar, at 15:1, to the overall 14:1 ratio. In the next phase of the research it should be easier to assess whether the emphasis on these groups is sufficient in the overall mix of projects

The recommendations

This research highlights the need for new approaches to regeneration policy and how it is measured. Our recommendations are as follows:

Measurement

Don’t assume that public investment alone has created change. SROI offers a useful framework within which to examine the information required, in order to assess change arising from an investment. Deadweight and attribution are central considerations for an SROI analysis, ensuring that influential factors additional to the investment itself are taken on board.

Targets can create perverse incentives and do not necessarily reflect the reality of people’s lives. LEGI targets – across the programme – focus on full employment, yet experience in St Helens suggests that this is often unrealistic for people who have been excluded for a long time from the labour market.

Measure and value distance travelled. Stepping stones into employment need to be created, and the length of the journey into employment needs to be recognised. The pre-employment phase – intensive coaching and work on attitudinal change with the unemployed, as well as awareness-raising among employers – is especially important. For example, it may take up to a year to build someone’s confidence to the point where serious employment discussions can begin.

Have a vision for how change will happen. A theory of change is needed to set out the logical flow from the investment programme through to how change will be created. This is an essential building block for planning any initiative of this kind. Theories of change should be explicit and the process through which they are developed should be transparent.

Measure the things that matter. If not addressed, gaps in the data will hinder the ability to carry out future evaluations. Timely and appropriate data are missing at a local and national level for a number of indicators. Data tend to be skewed towards bigger business and larger areas, although the problems of deprivation are often concentrated in smaller localities and the many smaller enterprises that will never grow to be eligible for VAT registration.

Involve stakeholders in setting and measuring indicators. One of the biggest challenges in moving towards outcomes-focused measurement is engaging staff that have been trained in a target-driven culture. It is important to involve them fully in developing systems in which they take more responsibility for understanding and managing the change that their service is bringing about.

Take a long-term view. Some outcomes from a programme such as the LEGI are not likely to accrue for a generation. Timescales within which measurement takes place need to reflect the actual pace of change, rather than policy or political cycles.

Economic development policy should be underpinned by an awareness of its impact on inequality. New research from nef has found that growth in share of enterprise within a local authority does not necessarily lead to a similar increase in the most deprived neighbourhoods (report forthcoming). Apart from employment there are other impacts of a decline in enterprise that need to be considered, such as a decline in local shops and services that reduce people’s access to these amenities.

Take risks. Innovation in economic development should not be limited to projects themselves but should also apply to the theory of change developed to help implement them. An acceptance of risk is essential to achieve innovation. Consultation with local people in St Helens highlighted the importance of the following factors in the development of a theory of change for economic development:

Formal and informal networks and their role in getting people into the labour market (see the Bizz Fizz approach to building on networks in deprived communities)⁸.
The informal economy and its importance to those who are on low incomes and/or intending to move into self-employment.

Any job is not enough. While paid employment was very important to those seeking work, meaningful work was also considered important. Negative experiences of casual and insecure employment can be discouraging for those with already low levels of confidence. Future plans for the WNF should also take account of the quality of jobs created in terms of sustainability, conditions, satisfaction and so on. These factors matter to stakeholders.

Develop a joined-up approach. WNF needs to dovetail policy in this area with initiatives by other departments. For example, the recent Green Paper on employment made no mention of enterprise, despite its importance to the Department of Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Neither did the Green Paper refer to sustainable development, a significant policy concern both for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and in the 2006 Local Government White Paper.

Take the politics out of regeneration. There is still a significant gap in the evidence about what works in relation to economic development policy. It is essential that policy becomes more informed and less political if we are to build the evidence base and use public investment as effectively as possible to combat inequality.

Conclusions
This research has set out to explore the use of SROI as a way of evaluating an economic development programme. Our report makes the case for using a SROI approach to help build an evidence base and to enable the more effective targeting of public policy and investment. Assuming the right data systems are in place, the next steps will be to compare the SROI projections with actual outcomes in the second year. There are strong grounds for optimism that the SROI process and its results will provide better measures of effectiveness both for the LEGI and for future WNF programmes on local economic development.

The moral and economic arguments for reducing inequality and raising the incomes of the poor have been made by others. The UK economy has maintained average growth rates of 2.5 per cent since the 1950s but the benefits of this growth have not been equally distributed, which has led to more concentrated and entrenched poverty and social exclusion. It is essential that policy and investment should be effectively focused on those areas where it will have the most impact.

Finally, future economic development programmes need to be underpinned by a coherent and innovative theory of change. Evaluations need to be focused on the achievement of sustainable development outcomes, which directly relate to addressing the causes of inequality.

The whole report is available here.

Notes:

1. See Dorling D et al (2007) Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968 to 2005 (York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation); cf. Orton M and Rowlingson K (2007) Public Attitudes to Economic Inequality (York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation).
2. Dorling D and Thomas B (2007) Identity in Britain: A Cradle-To-Grave Atlas (Policy Press, Bristol).
3. See for example, evaluations from Enterprise Zones, Regional Selective Assistance and Phoenix Development Fund: Kornblatt T and Troni L (2006) City Markets: business location in deprived areas (London: ippr); ODPM (2003) Business-led Regeneration of Deprived Areas: A Review of the Evidence Base, Research Report 5 (London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister); and Ramsden P (2005) Phoenix Fund: final evaluation for SBS, availabke from www.sbs.gov.uk [26 February 2008].
4. See Simms A et al (2005) Clone Town Britain: The survey results on the bland state of the nation (London: nef) and www.pluggingtheleaks.org [26 February 2008].
5. http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/neighbourhoodrenewal/deprivation/deprivation07/
6. Five years is a standard period over which to project the returns, and so for a three-year programme the projection is over eight years.
7. This was close to the one-year LIBOR rate as of January 2007 when the calculations were made. It would also be possible to take a longer-term average but it is unlikely that this would have an impact on the overall SROI ratio.
8. Issues of equity are only considered in so far as a closing of the St Helens enterprise gap makes the achievement of the employment outcomes more likely.

The Carbon Cost of Christmas: and How to Beat it

Tim Holmes — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:01:21 +0000

A time of peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind, Christmas has also become a frenzy of mass consumption. And, as new calculations from the new economics foundation reveal, our obsession with high-tech energy guzzling gadgets threatens both to derail attempts to cut emissions, and erode our well-being.

But, nef researchers say, low carbon highs hold the key to reducing emissions and creating real festive cheer. Having calculated some of the carbon cost of Christmas, researchers at nef, an award winning independent ‘think-and-do’ tank have devised a climate friendly Christmas that also increases people’s well-being.

Market analysts estimate that around 60 percent of annual turnover in UK retailing happens during the Christmas period. In its briefing – The Carbon Cost of Christmas – the think tank exposes some of the biggest seasonal ‘no no’s this Christmas, followed by some big Christmas ‘yes, yeses.’

For example, this year, Christmas sparkle comes all the way from China:

* Well over eight out of ten Christmas decorations we import this year will come from China – in all a record 66,500 tonnes. Things produced in China generally pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, because China’s energy mix contains much more carbon. But even that excludes the carbon cost of shipping them half the way around the world to the UK.

And just two of the gadgets topping Christmas wish lists this year reveal the increasing carbon cost of our obsession with high tech just at the point at which we should be reducing emissions:

* Energy consumed by Nintendo Wii games consols in the UK for the year up to Christmas is estimated to generate the equivalent in greenhouse gases of 180,000 single flights from the UK to New York[i] The CO2e emissions produced by each consol– just one household electrical device – using its Wiiconnect24 stand-by facility, assuming a modest 14 hours playing per week, over the course of a year is greater than, or equal to, the total annual carbon dioxide emissions per person in countries such as Burundi or Chad.
* If just one household in every 25 in the UK buys a new Digital Photo Frame it will lead to a rise in annual CO2e emissions of 11,000 tonnes – the equivalent of over 14,000 air passenger journeys from London to New York[ii]

“Everyone sets out to have a good time at Christmas, but invariably people end up broke, arguing and disappointed as they stumble towards the New Year. We wanted to find out how we could avoid our over-flowing festive generosity being expressed as the mindless consumption of energy-intensive products.” says Andrew Simms policy director at nef and head of the climate change programme, “Because this, in turn, leads to rivers and seas overflowing their banks and coastlines due to global warming – not a nice Christmas present for anyone. A better gift is greater well-being, but this means breaking bad habits and learning some good, new skills.”

Instead, nef has set out a ten point plan for low carbon highs this Christmas. The think tank’s suggestions include:

* Switch of the TV. To really feel good and save the climate, read a library book. It’s the least energy intensive (and most satisfying) activity. Considering the embodied energy, reading a library book uses around one quarter of the energy used while watching TV.
* Give the gift of time. Forget about the expression “time is money”, time is time – and that’s far more precious. Rather than ‘stuff’ they probably won’t want, present friends and family with a time pledge and add ‘time’ to your own Christmas wish list? A small certificate committing you to spending some time with them or on their behalf. You could help them learn a language, or fix their bicycle. Time is the basic currency on which relationships and communities are based. If you like the idea of using your time as a currency, check out your local Time Bank

As nef’s ten point plan shows, low carbon highs don’t have to be just for Christmas, they can last the whole year.

The carbon cost of Christmas, and how to beat it

[i] Calculation by nef’s Climate Change Programme

[ii] Calculation by nef’s Climate Change Programme

Global warming will push Asia into reverse, as UK leadership fades

JamieSW — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:51:19 +0000

The biggest study yet from the unique coalition of major UK poverty and environment groups reveals scale of climate impacts on international work -and says immediate action needed before Asia goes ‘Up in Smoke’?

The report – Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific – with a foreword by Dr R.K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – says that without immediate action, global warming is set to reverse decades of social and economic progress across Asia, home to over 60 per cent of the world’s population. The report is published in the wake of evidence that the UK is reneging on targets for renewable energy set to tackle climate change.

Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific is the most extensive and concluding chapter of a unique, four-year long exercise by the Up in Smoke coalition – an alliance of the UK’s major environment and development groups. Four years ago, the coalition set out to assess the impacts of climate change on efforts toward poverty reduction around the world from the point of view of practical, community-based organisations engaged in designing responses to a changing environment.

This, the latest and most comprehensive report from communities around the world on the front line of climate change catalogues the threat climate change poses to human development, and the growing consequences of inaction on the issue. It shows how, across Asia, people and communities are already acting to reduce the worst impacts of climate change. But the report says, there is not a moment to lose. Unless a decisive international agreement is reached, and soon, the lives of those living on the front line of climate change will go up in smoke.

As world leaders prepare for the next UN talks to determine the international response to climate change, in Bali at the beginning of December, Up in Smoke: Asia and the Pacific, shows how the human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where almost two thirds of the world’s population live, effectively on the front line of climate change.

The report highlights, for example, that:

In the summer of 2007, British aid agencies, including those in the Up in Smoke alliance, had to raise funds from the UK public to go towards assisting up to 28 million people affected by flooding in South Asia. Extreme weather events like this are likely to become more frequent.

Over half of the population of Asia live near the coast, making them directly vulnerable to sea-level rise driven by global warming.

Asia is home to 87 per cent of the world’s known 400 million small farms – all especially vulnerable to climate change as they rely on regular and reliable rainfall.

Drought in north China has increased, ruining the livelihoods of the region’s farmers. And, around 8 out of 10 glaciers in western China are reportedly in retreat due to climate change.

The latest global scientific consensus indicates that all of Asia is set to warm during this century, and that this will be accompanied by less predictable and more extreme patterns of rainfall. Tropical cyclones are projected to increase in magnitude and frequency across the region, while monsoons, around which farming systems are designed, are expected to become more unpredictable in their strength and time of onset.
The expansion of biofuel crops linked to deforestation could, instead of being a climate friendly alternative to fossil fuels, actually worsen global warming and harm local livelihoods and the environment.

Communities living on small island states like Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu, scattered across thousands of square kilometres of ocean in the Pacific, among the least responsible globally for climate change, have already fallen victim to the impacts of climate change. Entire nations are now at risk.

Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific, presents the results of an unprecedented consultation by members of the coalition among grass roots groups across Asia and the Pacific and including within China – presenting a unique body of evidence direct from the front line of climate change, and an urgent call to action from global leaders.

As officials in the UK continue to work behind the scenes to evade the UK governments commitments to renewable energy, the report catalogues the impact that climate change is already having on some of the worlds most vulnerable communities – just last month, a reported 5 million people were affected when a typhoon struck the south- east coast of China.

The report also presents new evidence that the ‘silver bullet’ of biofuels could turn into a rush for ‘fools gold’ across Asia as huge social and environmental costs outweigh the benefits, substantiating concerns already raised by aid and environment groups, and scientists.

Indonesia has some six million hectares of land under oil palm and the Government is actively encouraging further expansion. As a result of deforestation, some of which is for palm oil plantations, Indonesia is the third-largest global emitter of carbon dioxide, after the USA and China.

Deforestation is already the second-largest contributor to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Deforestation to make way for large-scale mono-cropping obliterates the ‘green credentials’ of biofuels by actually increasing the amount of emissions rather than reducing them.

The economic attraction of biofuels is also leading to conflict between crops grown for food and those grown for fuel. Increasingly, the result is expected to be both greater competition for land and higher food prices.

Pledging once again to play their part in trying to halt dangerous climate change and to help bring about a global solution that is fair and rooted in human equality, amongst a range of recommendations detailed in the report, the coalition calls on the international community to urgently:

Cut greenhouse gas emissions. Rich countries, both historically and today, are disproportionately responsible for the emissions that have caused and still fuel climate change. As such, they need to meet and exceed their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions set under the Kyoto Protocol. Starting now with deep annual cuts, commitments should be introduced progressively in a way that prevents a dangerous accumulation of greenhouse gases and puts industrialised countries on track to reach cuts of at least 80 per cent by 2050.
Halt forest clearance to contain biofuel expansion. Conduct an urgent assessment of carbon benefits from different fuels as well as assessing their impacts on biodiversity especially in intact forests, carbon release from peatlands, as well as impacts on the food security and traditional livelihoods of local populations.

Draw up coordinated plans, from local to international levels, for relocating threatened communities with appropriate political, legal and financial resources. New problems are emerging. For example, as some nations lose land, a way to deal with threats to Exclusive Economic Zones, and appropriate compensation funding, need to be developed. Resources, too, will need to target the appropriate level of government with whom the responsibility to care for environmental refugees will fall.

In particular, the coalition calls on the UK government to set an example for countries like China and India by:

Committing to mandatory emissions reductions. As an absolute minimum, the UK Climate Change Bill, currently passing through parliament must lock-in mandatory year on year emissions reductions for the UK, setting carbon budgets for 3-5 year periods, to ensure that the UK does its part in keeping global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.
Keeping its commitments to renewable energy. Recent evidence revealed the UK government’s attempts to evade binding targets on renewable energy. Across Asia, the potential for sustainable and renewable energy is vast, and the market, especially in poor communities frequently unable to gain power from large grid systems, is huge. But the temptation to exploit easily available fossil fuels is equally high. Countries like the UK need to set strong domestic examples by championing renewable energy – if countries in Asia are to be convinced not to go down the fossil fuel energy route of ‘get rich quick, stay poor long.’ India, for example, could provide 60 per cent of its total electricity supply by 2050 using renewables.

Enable the transfer of environmentally friendly technology, where appropriate and requested, by ending the use of restrictive laws governing intellectual property.

There is growing consensus about the current human and environmental challenges facing Asia, and what is needed to tackle them. There is already enough knowledge and understanding to know what the main causes

Alongside new evidence of the devastating impact that climate change is already having on communities across Asia, Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific, shows positive measures that are already being taken – by governments, by civil society and by local people – to reduce the causes of climate change and to overcome its effects. It shows examples of emissions reduction; alternative water and energy supply systems; preservation of strategic ecosystems and protected areas; increasing capacity, awareness and skills for risk and disaster management; and the employment of effective regulatory and policy instruments. The challenge is clear and many of the solutions are known: the point is, to act.

Competition Commission Enquiry Hijacked

Tim Holmes — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:36:34 +0000

The Competition Commission enquiry has been hijacked in the interests of the supermarkets it was set up to investigate, says nef.

Key outcomes from the Competition Commissions provisional findings are a travesty. In fact, it is so bad it is almost comic. Instead of acting to preserve an open market the Commission is suggesting moves that will increase the collective dominance of a handful of supermarkets over UK plc, says nef.

Charged with investigating how to break the big four’s stranglehold on British retailing, the commission appears to have concluded that the stranglehold should be tightened. In its last major report seven years ago, in spite of concluding that the market had too much power in too few hands and was riven with anticompetitive practices, many of which were contrary to the public interest, the watchdog produced no effective remedies. This time it has gone one step worse.

“Supermarket dominance is like a Chinese finger trap and the Commission is pushing us into a situation from which it will be increasingly hard to escape”, said nef policy director Andrew Simms, responding to the Commission’s release of its provisional findings,

“People want choice about where to shop, and not between supermarkets selling virtually identical goods at virtually identical prices. They want a variety of genuine local shops, small shops and markets – the kind of enterprises that create economically vibrant local communities and provide the social glue that holds neighbourhoods together. But these enterprises will increasingly go to the wall if the Commission’s key proposals go ahead. People don’t want to live in ghost communities whose economic hearts have been surgically removed and put into massive out-of-town retail hypermarkets. And, neither do they want to live in clone towns dominated by identikit chain stores,” he added.

And, as nef set out in its submission to the enquiry, Detrimental Effects, based on consultation with a range of leading experts in competition law and economics, by taking an over-simplistic view of consumer interest in terms of price, when the Enterprise Act lays down quality, choice and innovation as considerations to be protected – both today and into the future, the Commission risks failing its statutory duty. The Commission’s findings also appear confused. It finds no direct evidence of tacit coordination between the supermarkets, yet only a month ago it found evidence that supermarkets had colluded to fix the price of milk.

“Changing the monitoring of the code of practice by introducing an independent Ombudsman is a good idea, but only if it has the tools to do the job. Coupled with the Commission’s other proposals – expecting an Ombudsman to control the market-distorting power of the supermarkets is like sending someone to build sea defences with a feather duster. It’s going to be messy, ineffective and potentially dangerous,” added Simms.

“Seven years ago the Commission warned that British retail was over concentrated. They told us that the supermarkets were guilty of dozens of anti-competitive practices, many of which were against the public interest. Since then things have got worse and the collective dominance of the big four supermarkets has grown bigger. Now, these proposals stand to accelerate what is in effect a retail coup d’etat which has profound implications for our way of life. Time is running out for the regulator. If the Commission cannot now prove that it can do the job for which it was created and is legally obliged to perform – keeping the market open and protecting full choice for consumers today and into the future – they should be abolished and replaced with a regulator who is more in touch with the times,” he concluded.

The UK's "China-Dependence"

Tim Holmes — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:11:35 +0000

‘China-dependence’ going up for life in UK, as World as a whole goes into ‘ecological debt’

From today, Saturday 6 October, the world as a whole goes into ecological debt driven by over-consumption. ‘Ecological debt day’ is the date when, in effect, humanity uses-up the resources the earth has available for the year, and begins eating into its stock of natural resources. World ecological debt day has crept ever earlier in the year since humanity first began living beyond its environmental means in the 1980’s. The latest available data reveals that the overuse of the earth’s resources is much more extreme in rich countries. For example, if everyone in the world wanted to live like people in the UK, on a very conservative estimate, we would need more than three planets like Earth.

This is just one of the findings of a new report from nef, Chinadependence: the second UK Interdependence report, published in association with the Open University. Released on the day that the world as a whole goes into ecological debt – marked internationally by the Global Footprint Network – Chinadependence reveals the many ways in which Britain is becoming increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to fuel our high-consuming lifestyles. In particular, Chinadependence reveals a striking rise in our dependence on a wide range of Chinese imports. And, because the greenhouse gas pollution that results from their manufacture is blamed on China, not the consumers in the UK, we are turning China into our ‘environmental laundry’ with devastating consequences for the planet.

Chinadependence also reveals that Britain’s dependence on the rest of the world for basics like food and energy is still rising. The report, the second overview of the UK’s place in the international system by nef, shows that the burden in terms of resource consumption that our lifestyles exert on the fields, forests, rivers, seas and mines of the rest of the world is still increasing despite increased public concern about climate change. This comes as other research shows that a high quality of life is as easy to achieve at very low levels of consumption as at high levels, and as awareness is growing that the pursuit of high-consuming lifestyles undermines well-being.

“During the recent banking emergency people feared that the UK would slide from a liquidity crisis into an insolvency crisis. Few saw the link between easy credit and over-consumption that is leading to a far worse problem: an environmental insolvency crisis. This report shows the urgent need to develop a sensible and positive pattern of interdependence between the UK, the rest of the world and the earth’s life-support systems,” says Andrew Simms, lead author of the report and nef policy director,

“As the world creeps closer to irreversible global warming and goes deeper into ecological debt, why on earth, say, would the UK export 20 tonnes of mineral water to Australia, and then re-import 21 tonnes? And why would that wasteful trade be more the rule, than the exception. In the face of collective challenges like global warming, it makes clear that the UK’s patterns of interdependence will have to change if our economy is to become remotely sustainable.”

“Our twentieth century politics of short-termism and self interest leave us lost in the face of climate change and the downsides of globalization. This report helps us see the long threads of connection – ecological, cultural, and economic – that span our interdependent world. In doing so it writes a new map of our urgent political responsibilities.” adds Joe Smith, of the Open University, co-ordinator of the Interdependence Day project and report contributor.

The report reveals that the UK is drifting into ever greater ‘Chinadependence.’ We are ever more clothing ourselves, furnishing our homes, watching television, listening to music, playing games with our children and even decorating our Christmas trees, courtesy of goods manufactured in China. For example:

▪ In the last year alone, our spending on imports from China rose 18 per cent to £15.6 billion and, more important environmentally, imports rose 10 per cent by weight to a total of just under 6.5 million tonnes.
▪ Over the past five years, our spending on, and the weight of imports have risen by over 125 per cent and 114 per cent respectively.
▪ In 2006, we imported 60,000 tonnes just of Christmas decorations.

China has become the ‘environmental laundry’ for the Western world. China is increasingly blamed for its levels of pollution in general, and its rising greenhouse gas emissions in particular. But it is demand from countries like the UK which leads to smoke from Chinese factories and power plants entering the atmosphere. Because China’s energy mix is more fossil-fuel intensive than those of Europe, Japan or the USA, it also means that outsourcing to China creates more greenhouse gas emissions for each product made.

“As China is increasingly attacked because of its rising pollution levels, people overlook two important issues. First, per person, China’s greenhouse gas emissions are a fraction of those in Europe and the United States. Second, a closer look at trade flows reveals that a large share of China’s rising emissions is due to the dependence of the rest of the world on exports from China – a Chinadependence,” adds lead author and nef policy director, Andrew Simms,

“There is also the fact that a lot of heavy industry has simply relocated to China from apparently cleaner, richer nations – when our major retailers scour the world for the cheapest production costs, the result is that more greenhouse gases get pumped into the atmosphere for every product we buy. Because of the way that data on carbon emissions gets collected at the international level, this has the effect of ‘carbon laundering’ economies like those of Britain and the USA,” he concludes.

The report also shows that ecologically wasteful trade with the world as a whole is still rife in the UK economy. Amongst several examples of economic and environmental inefficiency the report reveals that in 2006 alone:

▪ From all trading partners in total, the UK imported 14,000 tonnes of chocolate covered waffles, and exported 15,000 tonnes.
▪ We both imported from and exported to Italy, 600 tonnes of, ‘gums and other jelly confectionary’.
▪ We sent 21 tonnes of mineral water all the way to Australia and brought 20 tonnes all the way back.
▪ The large, two-way traffic of beer between Spain and the UK is also almost identical in amount

The report shows that the UK’s growing interdependence with the rest of the world is both a fact and an opportunity. But, the report says, we are currently abusing it – by living so far beyond our environmental means and running up ecological debts we deny millions who go without, the chances for a better life and we put the planet’s life support mechanisms in peril. Amongst other trends, the report reveals that Britain’s dependence on basics like food and energy is still rising, and shows an economy increasingly dependent on international trade:

▪ The UK’s ability to feed itself is still declining: for all food, the UK’s self-sufficiency is now 27 per cent lower than it was in 1990, and has dropped seven per cent since 2002. Continuing a trend begun in the early-to-mid 1990s, the UK’s self-sufficiency in providing food continues to fall. Even allowing for changes in the way the Government calculates its figures, our ability to feed ourselves, without depending on imports from overseas, is at its lowest ebb for half a century.
▪ The UK is less able to meet its own energy needs: since losing self-sufficiency in 2004, our ‘energy dependence’ has increased almost four fold. In 2004, the UK lost its status as an energy independent nation. Since then we have relied on imports to balance supply and demand. Even though the country has huge untapped renewable energy sources, including some of the best supplies of potential wind energy in Europe, our dependence on energy imports is increasing.
▪ Britain’s dependence on international trade is increasing despite rising fuel prices and fears about climate change: International trade makes up a growing share of the UK’s income. Trade as a share of GDP is at its highest point for over four decades and on an upward trend.

There is also a human price to be paid by the rest of the world for our lifestyles. We are still highly reliant on overseas workers to staff our schools and hospitals draining some of the world’s poorest counties of vital human resources. And, the report reveals, increases in overseas aid, have been dwarfed by money from developing countries deposited in UK banks

▪ The UK still relies on health workers from poor countries: As issues of immigration refuse to leave the mainstream political debate, the reality appears to be that many of our vital public services could not function without the arrival of skilled professionals from overseas. In the last five years alone, the UK has imported 289 trained nurses from Malawi, 364 from Botswana and 757 from Zambia. South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho and Zimbabwe also send nurses trained in the health systems of Africa to work in the NHS. The popular myth of the UK being a soft-touch for health tourists, masks a reality in which we are being tended in our sick beds by nurses that many poor countries can ill afford to lose.
▪ UK: important aid donor or haven for money on the run? According to figures from the Bank of England, in 2006, money from developing countries deposited in UK banks surged by over $124 billion – around $10 billion more than in 2005 – lifting total deposits to $514 billion. In 2006, nef revealed that in spite of the UK Government’s commitment to increasing its aid budget, another barely noticed trend, the rise in money from developing nations deposited in UK banks, cast questions over the nation’s financial role in relation to developing countries. Overall, a range of factors will be influential but, generally, the removal of controls over the movement of money around the world, and ‘capital flight’ are both likely factors.

Chinadependence reveals how the nation is being woven into an ever closer and more complicated international economic, cultural and social fabric, with both positive and negative consequences.

A positive future, the report suggests, will only be guaranteed through a paradigm shift in government policy away from ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ economic competitiveness, towards the cooperation demanded by our inescapable interdependence. As a minimum commitment to positive global interdependence, the report calls on the UK government to:

▪ Adopt the ecological footprint as an official measure, with a timetable, policies and resources to move the UK to live within its fair, per capita share of available global biocapacity – so-called ‘one planet living’.
▪ Commit to reversing the decline in the UK’s food self sufficiency alongside a published timetable.
▪ Commit to year-on-year greenhouse gas emissions reductions in line with a minimum cut of 80 per cent by the year 2050. This could be achieved by following the road map to an 80 per cent cut in UK emissions by 2050 set out by Craig Simmons, technical director of Best Foot Forward.
▪ Commit to greater energy security and independence by introducing significant measures for demand reduction, increased efficiency, deployment of renewable energy technologies and the introduction of more efficient, mini and medium scale grids for distribution.
▪ Take action to prevent the UK being a haven for dubious capital flight from developing countries.
▪ Compensate developing countries where a brain and skills drain of publicly trained professionals – such as from health services across Africa – benefits the UK.
▪ Celebrate the public enrichment that comes from living in a society comprised of many cultures that is part of an interdependent world. And, as part of that, to publicly acknowledge the day in the year when, in effect, the UK stops depending on its own means, and begins to live off the rest of the world.

Money For Nothing

Tim Holmes — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:21:23 +0000

UK 21st in European league of carbon efficiency and well-being

New Europe-wide research using an innovative measure of carbon efficiency and real economic progress reveals that Europe is less efficient now at delivering human well-being than it was 40 years ago.

The European Happy Planet Index, reveals for the first time, the carbon efficiency with which 30 European nations produce long, happy lives for their citizens. The new ranking reveals a very different picture of the health and wealth of European nations.

nef‘s (the new economics foundation) analysis also looks back over the last 40 years and comes to surprising and worrying conclusions. In an age of climate change, when it is more important than ever that we use our resources efficiently, nef’s Index, published in association with Friends of the Earth, reveals that:

• The UK comes a poor 21st in the league of 30 countries. Only transition economies, and Portugal, Greece, and Luxembourg do worse.

• Europe as a whole has become less efficient, not more, in translating fossil fuel use into relatively long and happy lives. In fact, the Index reveals that Europe is less carbon efficient now than it was in 1961.

• Across Europe people report comparable levels of well-being whether their lifestyles imply the need for the resources of six and a half, or just one planet like Earth. The message to politicians is that people are just as likely to lead satisfied lives whether their levels of consumption are very low or high and therefore they should not be afraid of policies to reduce demand.

To calculate the European Happy Planet Index, nef first ranks countries separately for their carbon footprint, life expectancy and life satisfaction. Then countries are ranked for the efficiency with which their resource use translates into relatively long and happy lives. In the results a huge range of performance is revealed. This shows great potential to meet the challenge of reducing our collective carbon footprint, and to do so without damaging quality of life.

“Countries like Iceland, the highest scoring nation on our Index clearly show that happiness doesn’t have to cost the earth. Iceland’s combination of strong social policies and extensive use of renewable energy demonstrate that living within our environmental means doesn’t mean sacrificing human well-being – in fact, it could even make us happier. By learning from the differences between European countries and by copying the best practices, we believe it will be possible to both greatly reduce our carbon footprint, and increase our well-being,” says Nic Marks, founder of nef’s Centre for well-being

“Countries that have most closely followed the Anglo-Saxon, strongly market-led economic model show up as the least efficient. These findings question what the economy is there for. What is the point if we burn vast quantities of fossil fuels to make, buy and consume ever more stuff, without noticeably benefiting our well-being? We know that someone is just as likely to have high life satisfaction while living within their environmental means, as someone who recklessly over-consumes. So, what is preventing us from radically changing direction, and reaping the benefits? If Europe doesn’t lead, India, China and Brazil will not follow,” says Andrew Simms, nef’s policy director and head of the climate change programme.

The Index reveals that with regard to life expectancy and life satisfaction (happy life years):

• North European countries like Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Finland and Sweden do best in terms of life satisfaction.

• The UK comes a disappointing 15th in both league tables for life satisfaction and life expectancy. Contrasted with nations such as France and Germany this puts the UK just ahead in terms of life satisfaction, with Germany 16th and France 19th; but behind on life expectancy with France in 7th place and Germany just ahead in 14th.

• The so-called transition economies, such as Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, and Romania do worst in both tables, differing only slightly in rank order.

Where the carbon footprint is concerned, a more interesting and less obvious picture begins to emerge:

• While Luxembourg is by far the worst country for its carbon footprint per person (so bad in fact that we couldn’t fit it on our scale), from a league of 30 nations the UK comes in fourth from the bottom. Finland and Estonia join the UK and Luxembourg at the bottom of the table as the other countries with worse consumption per head of population.

• The Scandinavian nations have some of the lowest per capita carbon footprints in Europe, despite also being amongst the richest and happiest nations. Some of the differences can be explained by access to domestically available renewable energy sources, but not all. Even wealthy, high consuming Switzerland has only the ninth largest footprint.

• Europe as whole is responsible for almost three times its fair, global share of carbon emissions.

When all the indicators are put together a picture of relative carbon efficiency and well being emerges, with very bad news for the UK.

Iceland comes top of the European HPI. Scandinavian countries are the most efficient – achieving the highest levels of well-being in Europe at relatively low environmental cost with Sweden and Norway joining Iceland at the top of the HPI table. The UK comes 21st in the league of 30 countries and only transition economies, and Portugal, Greece, and Luxembourg do worse.

“Our economy has been binge-drinking fossil fuels for decades. But not only has this been wrecking the environment we all depend on, it’s not been making us any happier either. Gordon Brown needs to set the UK in a new direction – where the aim of Government is to improve the quality of people’s lives, without costing the earth. This means an explicit focus on the type of economy we have, not just its size – we need low-carbon and high-happiness as goals for our society, not just ramped-up GDP”, says Simon Bullock, economy campaigner for Friends of the Earth.

On current performance, Europe is not remotely close to navigating an economic course set to reach its desired location on climate policy. It needs to achieve a carbon footprint small enough to help prevent the planet warming by more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This requires cuts in emissions by industrialised nations of between 70 and 80 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels according to Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the Treasury’s influential report on the economics of climate change.

Worse still, as the European Happy Planet Index reveals, Europe is heading in the wrong direction, its carbon footprint still growing, and its level of carbon efficiency in terms of fuelling happy, long lives – lower than at any level in the last 40 years.

To reverse this trend, we need to look to the example of those European countries that are already the most efficient – some of the most socially progressive and technologically advanced nations anywhere in the world.

Innovative policies will need to be developed that significantly reduce per capita carbon footprints whilst enhancing well-being. This will require comprehensive action, but the key targets for policy makers are:

• Reducing consumption overall and setting legally binding targets for carbon reduction: Every European government needs to set legally binding targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, setting carbon budgets for 3-5 year periods, to ensure each country does its part in keeping global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.

• Reducing inequalities: Inequalities – not just of income, but also of education, health and social opportunity – have a damaging impact on well-being. Governments should aim to halt and reverse rises in inequality, and provide more support for local communities to thrive.

• Support meaningful lives: It is time that European governments invested in and implemented national well-being accounts to inform policy making across government, ensuring that the impact of policy decisions on people’s well-being is taken into account.

nef and Friends of the Earth call on the UK and other European governments, and the European Commission to adopt this analysis and embrace and apply new measures of progress, like the HPI. Only then will we be equipped to address the twin challenges of delivering a good quality of life for all whilst remaining within life-supporting environmental limits.

The impacts of global warming, both within the EU and around the world, means that we can no longer justify the marginal benefits reaped from our current high and inefficient levels of resource consumption. The price paid by future generations and people alive today in poorer countries, who have far fewer resources with which to adapt, is simply too great.

Europe needs urgently to find a new development path where good lives don’t cost the earth.

Taking The Temperature

Tim Holmes — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:51:10 +0000

NHS must act to tackle climate change says new research

A new report from nef for the NHS confederation says that the NHS, as one of the world’s biggest and most resource-hungry public sector institutions, must brace itself for the health impacts of global warming and act urgently to reduce its significant carbon emissions.

Taking the temperature: towards an NHS response to global warming says that the NHS faces a dual challenge. As well as taking action to reduce its own carbon emissions, as the lead agency responsible for public health, it needs to invest in preventive healthcare to strengthen the resilience of the population, as well as in treatment for the victims of a warmer, more variable climate.

Taking the temperature shows that the NHS is a long way from reducing its energy consumption to meet the government’s target of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010 and 60 per cent by 2050. As the report reveals, the sheer scale of the NHS, with 1 million patient contacts every 36 hours, means the organisation has a considerable carbon footprint, but also the potential to promote positive change:

- energy use in NHS healthcare facilities costs £400 million annually and results in a net emission of around 1 million tonnes of carbon – 5 per cent of all the UK’s emissions from road transport are attributable to NHS-related journeys. Staff, patients and visitors travelled almost 25 billion passenger kilometres for NHS-related purposes in 2001, of which 83 per cent were by car or van – one in every 100 tonnes of domestic waste generated in the UK comes from the NHS, with the vast majority going to landfill.

But, the sheer scale of NHS operations also creates huge opportunities to make a positive impact, says the report

Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents over 90 per cent of NHS organisations, says:

“As one of the biggest employers in the UK and the biggest public service, the NHS has a responsibility to tackle climate change and reduce its carbon foot-print. The report demonstrates that the NHS is starting to rise to the challenge of reducing its carbon footprint – there are some great innovators out there, but there is a long way to go to meet the government’s target of reducing energy admissions. By addressing some key aspects such as energy use, transport and waste the NHS can not only have a considerable impact on reducing its carbon footprint but also its costs.“

The report shows that very simple changes by the NHS could have a massive impact:

- if healthcare trusts meet their target to cut primary energy consumption by 15 per cent between 2000 and 2010, the NHS will save £50 million per year on its current energy bills – equivalent to one small community hospital or 7,000 heart bypass operations – if the 166 acute hospital trusts in England eliminated the estimated 90 kilotonnes of CO2 emitted each year when idle computers and screens are left on unnecessarily, the carbon emissions saved would be equivalent to those generated by flying over 26,000 people from London to New York and back – better building design could not only cut energy costs by a quarter but could also increase the productivity of the NHS’s 1.3 million-strong workforce by between 6 and 16 per cent – if domestic and clinical waste were correctly segregated and just 40 per cent recycled, additional emissions savings would be similar to those produced by driving an average-sized car around the equator more than 550 times.

Taking the temperature concludes that despite a plethora of headline targets for reducing emissions and energy use, there is a need for detailed strategies to address climate change in an integrated way across the NHS – with ambition to match the scale of the issue.

“The NHS will be working on the front-line as climate change hits the UK. The lethal heatwave that hit Paris not long ago shows the kind of thing that we can expect to become more common. But, as our climate-health check of the health service shows, an NHS braced for a warming world can play a vital double role. First, it can help the nation to cope and adapt, and its contact with over 1 million patients every 36 hours creates huge potential for promoting positive action. Second, it can lead the way by showing how large organisations can cut, radically, their greenhouse gas emissions. But, as Taking the temperature shows, global warming is happening, time is running out and – like the rest of us – the NHS has to act now, before the climate becomes critical.” says nef policy director, and co-author of the report, Andrew Simms

The report says that NHS organisations must take a longer-term view and recognise the potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies to deliver multiple health, environmental, social and economic benefits. Procuring hospital food from local producers, for example, not only reduces the carbon emissions associated with air and road freight but also contributes to community well-being and cohesion by boosting the local economy.

The report finds that there are plenty of examples of good practice across the UK. For example:

- Energy-saving projects such as the installation of a boiler economiser at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 485 photovoltaic panels at Bronllys Hospital in Powys and a combined heat and power plant at Hartlepool Hospital. As well as cutting carbon emissions, these three schemes alone have delivered total savings of £126,400 per year. – A two-thirds cut in carbon emissions from road freight and a boost to patient recovery, the local economy and the environment through the sourcing of more fresh, local and organic food by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust. – Creation of a corporate citizenship committee by Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust, bringing together all the key players in local procurement, transport, facilities management, employment and other areas. The benefits of partnership have included an energy-efficient A&E department, a pilot park-and-ride scheme for staff and patients and 30 per cent local procurement of food.

Taking the temperature concludes with ten key questions where health service managers can take action to put the NHS response to climate change on track ranging from evidence of leadership to the way in which they procure goods and services.

Britain Starts Eating the Planet

Alex Doherty — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:25:25 +0000

Research from nef (the new economics foundation) reveals that on Sunday 15 April this year, the UK in effect stops relying on its own natural resources to support itself and starts to ‘live off’ the rest of the world.

At current UK levels of consumption our ‘ecological debt day’ – the day we begin living beyond our environmental means – falls only a third of the way through the year and has crept ever earlier over the last four decades.

These latest findings build on a report, released by nef last year which exposed, for the first time, the sharp rise in how the UK depends on the rest of world, and how the burden of the Britain’s high-consuming lifestyle is exported internationally.

The UK Interdependence report: How the world sustains the nation’s lifestyles and the price it pays, published by nef in April 2006, mapped out the depth and breadth of our increasing interdependence and the price the planet pays.

The clearest demonstration of our failure to live within our environmental means comes from looking at the day in a typical calendar year when we start to live off the rest of the world. The latest available data reveals that:

At current levels of natural resource use in the UK, the average person goes into ecological debt on 15 April.

As our total consumption grows, the day on which we begin consuming beyond our environmental means moves earlier in the year. In 1961 it was 9 July. By 1981 Britain’s ecological debt day was reached almost two months earlier on 14 May.

Last year, the average person in the UK went into ecological debt on 16 April.

“On one level there is absolutely nothing wrong with importing goods and services to meet our needs; but our eyes are bigger than our planet. If the whole world understandably wanted to copy our levels of consumption, we would need the resources of more than three planets like Earth. And, we only have one. Our economy and way of life need to make contact with the real world before we eat accidentally eat it whole.” says Andrew Simms, nef’s policy director.

New data from nef and Global Footprint Network member Best Foot Forward shows that, our ecologically wasteful trading system is heading in the wrong direction.

As pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because of climate change increases, much of our trade seems highly inefficient. Identical products are being shipped backwards and forwards with heavy environmental costs. For example, in 2006:

We imported 586 tonnes of sweet biscuits, waffles and wafers, gingerbread and the like and exported just a little more, 669 tonnes.

We sent 1,445 tonnes of sugar confectionary (including white chocolate and excluding chewing gum) to Sweden, and brought in 1,632 tonnes from the same country.

We imported 14,137 tonnes of chocolate covered waffles and wafers (small packs) and exported 15,856 tonnes.

“The fact that the UK is a net importer of materials and is using up energy at an unsustainable rate should be of concern to all businesses. Damaging the ecosystems upon which we all depend is very short term thinking. To survive and profit in a future resource-constrained world all organisations must reduce their footprint”, says, Craig Simmons of Best Foot Forward.

And, the latest trade data on three particularly environmentally destructive commodities, soya, palm oil and tropical woods, reveal just how much of an impact our high consuming lifestyles are having on global biodiversity with potentially devastating impacts for the planet.

The growth of palms for oil – for biodiesel for the European market is now the main cause of deforestation in Indonesia, for example, and it is likely soon to become responsible for the extinction of the orang-utan in the wild. Research by Dutch consultancy Delft Hydraulics that because of deforestation and drainage of peat-lands, every tonne of palm oil created in South-East Asia results in up to 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – 10 times as much as conventional petroleum.

In 2005, we imported 652,110 tonnes of palm oil into the UK, 389,482 tonnes of which was imported from South-East Asia. Our consumption of palm oil from this region alone causing almost 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – equivalent to 2.5 per cent of emissions from the UK.

And, as scientists gathered at Oxford University at the end of Marchexpressed concern that the combination of forest fires, drought, deforestation, changes in land use (such as soya production) and global warming will combine to push the Amazon over a “tipping point” into a cycle of destruction, the latest trade data reveals how UK consumers are potentially fuelling the destruction of the Amazon.

We imported 774,623 tonnes of soya into the UK in 2005, almost 70 per cent of this (520,814 tonnes) from Brazil

Finally, just days after revelations of the devastating impact that the trade in tropical woods is having on the Congo forests, the latest trade data reveals that in 2005, we imported 10,998 tonnes of tropical woods from around the world.

“The UK’s growing interdependence with the rest of the world is a fact and an opportunity. But we are abusing it. By living so far beyond our environmental means and running up ecological debts we commit two wrongs. We deny millions who go without the chances for a better life and we put the planet’s life support mechanisms in peril,” adds nef policy director Andrew Simms,

The UK Interdependence report: How the world sustains the nation’s lifestyles and the price it pays

www.footprinter.org

1. UK trade info (2006)

2. UN COMTRADE (2005)

3.UK trade info (2006)

4. Wetlands International, 8th December 2006. Bio-fuel less sustainable than realised http://www.wetlands.org/news.aspx?ID=804eddfb-4492-4749-85a9-5db67c2f1bb… http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/resources.php#2007Jan31

5.UN COMTRADE (2005)

6. Three -day Conference: Climate change and the fate of the Amazon at the Environmental Change Institute. Professor Peter Cox of Exeter University presented a paper on the likelihood that the 2005 Amazon drought was caused by global warming. He concluded that there will be an increase in the probability of severe droughts in the region, and that a tipping point will occur when the natural environment is not longer able to recover

7. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6484073.stm

8. UN COMTRADE (2005)

9. UN COMTRADE (2005)

Supermarket Mythology

jo — Wed, 24 May 2006 10:26:58 +0000

New research shows street markets offer better choice on fresh fruit and vegetables than supermarkets at half the price, generate substantial benefits for the local economy and create twice as many jobs per square metre of retail than supermarkets.

Research by nef (the new economics foundation) for the Friends of Queens Market – the East London market featured in the documentary Wal-Mart, the high cost of a low price – presents a microcosm of the dangers of basing regeneration policy on supermarket expansion, from the real employment impact of supermarkets to the threat to consumer choice. The report analyses the threat that the development planned for the site the Market now stands on poses to the local economy and community in Newham, and the high cost of the loss of traditional street markets for communities across the UK.

Revealing the flawed basis on which planning decisions around the country are being made in favour of the UKs biggest supermarkets, the report quantifies for the first time the real value to local economies and communities around the UK of genuine local enterprise. Measuring the current local and community impact of Queens Market including its economic impact, employment impact and its contribution to enterprise generation in one of the capitals most deprived boroughs the report finds that:

-In total, QueensMarket generates over £13 million for the local economy with £9 million spent on food. It delivers substantial economic value to the local economy. Customers spend an average of £34 when they visit the market, £25 of which is spent on food. This spending is worth more than £11.5 million to the local economy each year. Customers also spend an estimated £1.8 million at shops close to the market.

In addition, the report finds that not only are fresh fruit and vegetables on average half the price of supermarkets, four out of five visitors to the market cited choice as their main reason for shopping there:

-80 per cent of customers at the market said that they used the market for the exceptional choice of goods available – the market sold goods that were not available elsewhere undermining the assertion of supermarkets that they can provide consumers with what they want. More than two-thirds were also attracted by the markets atmosphere.

-A shopping basket exercise found that items bought at the market were on average 53 per cent cheaper than at a local ASDA Wal-Mart supermarket. The market also offers particular benefits to low-income customers not available at supermarkets – they can use informal bargaining and haggling to achieve substantial discounts. This process reaches a climax at the end of the market day when produce is reduced to clear or given away free rather than left to waste.

The report also finds that the Market provides twice as many jobs per square foot of retail as supermarkets, and that the combination of low overheads and flexible business rates mean that the market serves as nursery in which a diverse range of enterprises can start, flourish and grow;

-The market delivers twice as many jobs per square metre as a food superstore. Queens Market provides significant employment providing 581 jobs, and 308 people employed at the market live in the immediate local area. Market jobs are also more varied than those at a food superstore, involving a richer skill set and greater opportunities to start a business and to acquire business knowledge.

-The market provides a space in which entrepreneurs are encouraged, nurtured and supported. 26 per cent of traders had begun trading at the market over the last five years, but over half had been trading for more than ten. Queens Market is particularly effective at supporting independent small businesses at a time of increasing concern about the collapse of independent business and the increasing dominance of the high street by chain stores and supermarkets. Ninety-nine per cent of the businesses at the market are independent traders.

-QueensMarket supports a large number of black and minority ethnic (BME) entrepreneurs who face particular barriers when starting businesses. Seven out of ten businesses surveyed at the market were owned by BME traders. The role of markets in providing suitable business space is underlined by research from the London Development Agency which found that start-up and growth of BME businesses are disproportionately disadvantaged by lack of access to suitable business premises.

-The market structure provides space for an extraordinary range and variety of businesses, some 35 different kinds of businesses, from sole traders to businesses employing 25 staff. Eighty one per cent of traders surveyed cited flexibility and 72 per cent cited reasonable rents as their reasons for trading at the market.

-Queens Market is providing a vital source of accessible, affordable and good quality food in an area, designated as a food desert, that is, it provides poor access to fresh and affordable food. Newham residents spend 1.5 times more of their disposable income on food than the national average and less on healthy food options like fruit and vegetables. Half the wards in Newham have been designated as food deserts.

Our research shows that markets provide vital revenue for local economies around the UK ranging from £0.5 to £13 million a year. Markets also support coral-like clusters of tiny businesses that are finely attuned to the local community and business environment in a way that no large format supermarket can ever be. The irony is that because the value of markets has not been quantified until now, planning decisions are being taken around the country which are undermining the small enterprises that can prevent us becoming a nation of clone towns.” says Guy Rubin, Senior researcher at nef (the new economics foundation)

Despite the overwhelming contribution that Queens Market is making to the local economy and community a number of threats to a thriving Queens Market arise from the plans put forward by Newham Council and property developers St Modwens. These can be summarised as follows:

-A reduction in the estimated £13 million of positive local economic impacts and money flows in the local economy.

-The introduction of clone town chains and multiples at the expense of independent retail.

-Increased barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs as a result of the imposition of higher costs, such as service charges for market traders.

-A reduction in the variety and range of business types and sizes.

-A loss in the range and quality of employment for local residents.

-Fewer opportunities for business growth and expansion for existing traders as a result of the availability of shop units in the new redevelopment.

-Design changes in the new market affecting visitor numbers and the quality of the unique and rich shopping experience
-Less, affordable fresh food available in an areas designated as a food desert

-A reduction in the exceptional range of ethnic food and other goods available at the market.

QueensMarket is also a model of specialist shopping because it caters to a majority multi-ethnic population, principally Asian but also African and Afro-Caribbean. The market experience is one of abundance where traders returning from Londons surviving wholesalers create a theatre of food: mountains of crisp green methi,, bundles of yard-long beans, twiggy longan fruit, cow-heel, Halal meat, salt-fish, fresh dates on the twig, black Kentish cherries , calaloo (now locally grown) and pale green cho-cho. It provides choice and value for local people that Asda, or any other large supermarket never will, says Claire Peasnall, of campaign group the Friends of Queens Market.

There is a legacy of poor investment and management by Newham Council that has contributed to a shopping environment in need of urgent improvement. However, as nefs report shows, current development plans threaten to impoverish not revitalise the local economy and community.