Is the government about to cut the sustainable schools unit?

There are increasingly strong rumours emerging from the Department of Education that Michael Gove is planning to close the Sustainable Schools unit.

In the current economic climate, Ministers are obviously seeking to cut anything that is perceived as peripheral and I can imagine that, at a cursory glance, Michael Gove could easily see the unit falling into that category.

I wonder if he would have made the same decision if it had been called Building Skills for the Green Economy.

Through our work with businesses, we know that there are increasing concerns about how they will meet the skills gap within a low carbon economy.

Through working with schools it is clear that there is a huge desire to run practical sustainable initiatives and that these can create fantastic learning opportunities for students including those who have become disaffected with more traditional learning techniques.

We also know that young people will have to learn to cope with a more resource-constrained world and will need the skills to do this.

Given these requirements, it would be very shortsighted and potentially damaging to the economy to close the unit.

Instead, the Minister might want to start thinking about how it could be refocused to give young people the skills they will need to flourish in the future.

Follow the money

Last week the mining company BHP Billiton launched a £28bn hostile bid for Canada's Potash Corporation.

It is a clear example of a new corporate struggle for resources.

Potash produces many of the components needed to make fertilisers and with possible food shortages, a growing world population and an increasing number of extreme weather events, BHP has realised the long-term value of controlling this resource.

Changes in eating habits are also increasing the demand for fertiliser. More people are eating meat. Every pound of beef requires seven pounds of grain to produce it and this is having a knock-on impact on the need for fertiliser.

This takeover bid mirrors a wider trend as companies and governments seek the resources that will be needed to meet rising consumption

For instance, China has signed a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow 2.8m hectares of palm oil for biofuels. The land grab in Africa has been likened to the European carve-up of the continent at the end of the 19thcentury.

What is clear is that resources are going to become more expensive and this highlights the need for us to create a truly robust sustainable consumption and production strategy for the UK.

Helplessness

Like many, I have been overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness watching the continuing suffering of the flood victims in Pakistan.

It is possible that the intense monsoon season has been caused by an unprecedented split within the jet stream. This could also have caused the high levels of rainfall in China where there have been devastating landslips and be the reason that the wildfire smoke remained stagnant over Moscow for such a long period.

Scientists have also expressed alarm at the speed of glacial melt in Greenland, which in an absolutely worst-case scenario could create a 7 metre rise in sea level in our lifetime.

It will obviously take scientists time to understand what is happening and why.

In the intervening period how should organisations such as Global Action Plan react? If we overstate the possible links with climate change we will be accused of scaremongering and distorting the science.

If we highlight the possible links with all the necessary caveats we lose our sense of urgency.

If we say nothing we know in our hearts that it will be too late to avoid even worse weather events such as the current floods in the future.

This is the fundamental conundrum at the centre of all our work and I am unsure how best to respond.

Cycling in Brittany

I have just returned from a weeks' holiday cycling across Brittany organised by the brilliantly ramshackle Breton Bikes company.

It is a great way to see France as it gives you a totally different perspective of speed, distance, the countryside and the people.

Cycling through small villages made me realise how badly the recession is hitting this rural economy. There were huge numbers of properties for sale and countless villages where the sole Bar-Tabac had shut.

Despite this, there was a strong sense of pride, distinctiveness and resilience among the people, which is strongly reminiscent of Cornwall.

Trewin Restorick makes the business case for saving the sustainable schools unit

BusinessGreen, 24 Aug 2010
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