SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

23-02-2007

Birmingham's plans to become the UK's greenest city were rolled out to a public audience for the last time last night at Millennium Point with a screening of Al Gore's movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” In the discussion that followed, city leaders had to face a few inconvenient truths of their own.

Firstly, let's celebrate the positive. Birmingham Strategic Partnership - an umbrella organisation bringing together business, public sector interests and the Council - is developing a climate change plan (see our previous report here) designed to ensure that we are at the forefront of the fight against global warming.

It might not be as ambitious or as radical as some eco-warriors might want, but it does have the advantage ofbeing supported bykey organisations like Birmingham International Airport who need to be “onside” if practical progress is to be made.

So far so good. But last night's occasionally chaotic meeting attended by more than 120 active citizens revealed just how far current thinking - even in an advanced city like ours - is lagging behind the science.

It also demonstrated how difficult it is to engage in a meaningful way with a wide range of people who have such a variety of aspirations.

One question raised by the consultants BMG brought these problems into floodlit focus. They asked the audience (who had voting buttons) how much, if anything, they would be prepared to pay as a voluntary Co2 tax on flights leaving Birmingham Airport.

This is the kind of solution big business likes since it allows them to carry on polluting; and passengers often go for ittoo because it allows them to feel they've done their bit for the planet.

Trouble is, as some of the more vocal audience members pointed out, groups like Friends of the Earth reject this kind of carbon offsetting altogether; the only way to be truly green, they say, is to avoid flying.

Such a scenario is obviously unpalatable for a city pledged to developing greater links with China, and whose business leaders are currently demanding an expansion of the airport runway to make it easier to fly long haul.

There are no easy resolutions to this tension, but it underlines why so many of those present felt frustrated at the proceedings; here we are trying to solve the problems of the present and future, but only on the understanding that we aren't allowed to meddlewith the economic models of the past, based as they are on competition, globalisation, and maximising the bottom line.

What's more, even where there are issues that we might agree on to reduce our carbon footprint - like cutting bus fares to encourage greater use of public transport - all too often, they lie beyond the control of local politicians.

Gore's film demonstrated that climate change presents a clear and present danger to our well-being; the feeling persists that as a society we simply aren't facing up to it quickly enough or vigorously enough.