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| Government support |
| The world is changing......So
what is DTI’s role? |
| DR TRUDIE MANSFIELD,
Environment Industries Sector Knowledge Team, Manufacturing, Materials and Environment
Unit, Department for Trade and Industry. | |
The DTI leads in taking forward the Government’s aim to improve UK productivity
and competitiveness by providing an effective channel between business and Government.
But within DTI, the Manufacturing, Materials and Environment (MME) Unit has a
new mission statement – green business is good business. MME incorporates
the old Environmental Industries Unit (EIU), which focused on the issues of concern
to the environmental goods and services (EGS) sector. By combining manufacturing
and materials with EIU, DTI has created a new look unit dedicated to broadening
the market for what were traditionally seen as environmental industries. This
new unit still reports jointly to DTI and Defra, so ensuring that both Departments
are joined-up in their approach to greening businesses... |
| | Meeting
the Global Challenge | | DOUGLAS BARNES,
Head of the Environmental Industries Sector Unit (EISU) reveals a few of the ways
in which the Government is helping the industry to ‘win business overseas’. | As
part of the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), EISU has a lead role in supporting the
UK environmental industry. Global challenges of climate change and environmental
degradation are accelerating the trend towards greener technologies and ways of
doing business. The world market for environmental goods and services,
estimated to be worth US$548bn in 2004, is currently about £400bn and is forecast
to grow by over 30 per cent to £688bn by 2010, and US$800bn by 2015. The UK is
well placed, and determined, to capitalise on the opportunities these figures
represent. Environmental companies taking their first steps into the world’s export
markets may feel like vulnerable pioneers. The reality is very different, quite
often the ground has already been well prepared by the UKTI... |
| | Leading
the way in the Regions | | by the UK
FORUM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INDUSTRIES (UKFEI) | Celebrating
five years of close working partnerships, this year sees the UKFEI continue its
valuable and rewarding work in the environmental goods and services (EGS) sector.
The UKFEI is a well-established forum for all the Regional Development
Agencies in England, together with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland to exchange best practice in the environmental technologies
and services sector. Over the years, partner organisations have played a key role
in the development of the UKFEI, such as the DTI’s Environmental Industries team,
the Environmental Industries Sector Unit at UK Trade & Investment and more recently,
the Integrated Pollution Management Knowledge Transfer Network (IPM-Net) and the
Water and Wastewater Team, also part of UK Trade & Investment... |
| | Sources
of Finance | | SIMON THORNE, Head of
the Company and Commercial Workgroup, Clarkslegal LLP | Despite
the UK having a well-developed environmental goods and services market, start-up
businesses and those lacking a track record often face difficulties in accessing
finance. Technology firms trying to raise finance for funding of demonstration
plants have historically faced the greatest number of barriers. Firms operating
in the waste sector where processing plants are often seen as too risky to fund
due to uncertainties over the proposed technology, markets for outputs and recovered
products and the regulatory permits/compliance system, face particular problems.
With the Stern Report on the Economics of Climate Change confirming that
investment that takes place in the next 10-20 years will have a profound effect
on the climate, it is imperative that adequate support for environmental technologies
and services is provided... |
| | The
Role of the UK Climate Change Projects Office | | JED
JONES, Principal Projects Advisor, Climate Change Projects Office, DTI | The
Climate Change Projects Office (CCPO) is the UK Government’s primary interface
with UK climate-change companies. The purpose of the office has been to raise
the awareness of the issues associated with climate change throughout UK industry,
particularly amongst small and medium enterprises. This has two aspects: firstly,
identifying the challenges posed by the need to respond to the effects of climate
change and secondly, encouraging companies to investigate the business opportunities
this may offer. The Kyoto Protocol puts an obligation on developed countries
to cap their emissions at a level relative to their emissions in 1990. This is
in some cases very challenging and as a result the Kyoto Protocol introduced three
market mechanisms, including the concept of emissions trading... |
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