This is a transcript of an oral presentation given at the Bristol City Council's Climate Change Select Committee .

The oral presentation relates to this report:

Consideration of Climate Change issues in Regeneration and Economic Development

Watch the video. Read the transcript. Then, please, someone, tell me what does the Bristol Environmental Technology Sector (BETS) Initiative actually achieve? What does it do? What specific benefits does it produce? What's the point?

I know what they say they do. Check out the Twenty Year Plan. Even Stalin only tried for five years. But I just don't get it.

I'm serious - I've just spent a couple of hours transcribing this text, following links, reading documents and I still can't work it out.

I'm not suggesting that Mr McDowell or his colleagues in Regeneration Divsion do not work hard. I have absolutely no doubt that they get in early, work hard all day and go home stressed out about the emails piling up and the reports to be written. As a matter of fact, there is a famous law describing this situation - Parkinson's Law.

TRANSCRIPT START 14:55

I'm Robin McDowell from the Economic Development Team, a colleague of Paul Drew and Ashy McKay within Regeneration Division. My particular role is Marketing Investment and Enterprise Support and my input to this report has been very much from the perspective of initiatives that we have developed - led by the city council - and involving quite a range of partners to support the development of an environmental technology and services sector in Bristol and the wider city region (the West of England.)

When I say "to develop the sector", the sector has obviously been here for many years but our work within the council has been largely to bring greater recognition and awareness of how diverse and emerging a sector we have; that embraces many different industrial and commercial activities which are helping to mitigate the impact of climate change. So our interest has been two-fold; in both planning initiatives and working with partners to further strengthen this sector and secondly in a more indirect way to act as a champion and advocate for the adoption of more effective, more comprehensive energy and environmental management practices by all local business sectors

I'd say our activities have really stepped up since 2006 when we formed the BETS initiative - the Bristol Environmental Technologies Sector Initiative - and that (as you may recall) was when the council launched its new kerb-side recycling services as part of the "Sustainable Bristol" week in June 2006. Our contribution to that was to launch a showcase of some of our leading environmental technology businesses at the @Bristol

We provided an exhibition and seminar programme, and during that summer we worked with other partners both within the council and most notably the "Sustainability Team" - then the "Sustainable City" team - to bring on board a range of partners to support the development of this vital sector.

The BETS initiative has actually been very successful in bringing together other public, private and third sector bodies - in other words the charitable and social enterprise sector too. We've had support from the University of Bristol and more recently the University of the West of England has come on board. two years from that first consultation around the needs and the opportunity to develop this sector and promote it - most crucially - to promote it more vigorously, both within the region and across the UK.

Since then we have now evolved to quite a wide partnership with over twenty members and it is predominately led by private sector companies from the renewable energy, waste management sectors, pollution control technology right through to the service sector which embraces the many specialist consulting and environmental audit firms we have based in the city, plus some of the leading environmental services companies and campaigning organisations, including Sustrans, Centre for Sustainable Energy and the Soil Association who have their national HQ in Bristol.

So one of the first things we've tried to do is create an Umbrella which links up the leading edge innovative technology developers in the renewable energy and the waste management sector right through to those who campaign and provide services around sustainable development.

Our work has been very much brokering and bringing together a range of partners. We have held events: I mentioned the cutting edge showcase in June 2006, and in 2007 we themed the Bristol Business Directory around innovation and environmental technologies and held a launch at the Bordeaux Quay restaurant, which itself is aspiring to be a showcase not only of organic production but also of waste minimisation practice and promoting a model which many other small businesses in the city could be following.

This year we've worked very closely with our colleagues in "Planning, Transport and Sustainable Development" and "Sustainable City" and effectively we share the servicing of quite a broad partnership and we have now an action plan in place for 2008/9 which really operates under four headings:

1. Networking and Communication
2. External Promotion and Inward Investment
3. Work Space and Cluster Development
4. <NOT MENTIONED>

This is very much to do with the spatial development agenda in terms of where will we place these emerging companies? How will we cater for their expansion needs in future years? We have the Bristol & Bath Science Park developing its innovation centre this year; that's a major opportunity for this sector to grow.

We also have a very significant cluster which has formed at Avonmouth and more widely into Severnside. We have major projects being led by the Bristol Port Company and the Council itself in relation to renewable energy supplies. We have a lot in this city and sub-region to promote and we can justifiably present ourselves as a centre of excellence and a focus for this sector going into the future

To that end, our major (current) activity is - Alex Mitchell has mentioned earlier the Hot-House and the Climate Change Festival - we've been discussing to go alongside that a major expo which will go further than we did in 2006: it will attempt to attract national delegates as well a selection of enterprises in the sector from across the South-West region. The objectives are to showcase the strengths we have in the sector in Bristol and more widely the region, and hold a national event with seminars and project visits over a two day period from the 17th to 18th June.

We hope very much that this can be a contribution to our projection as a Green Capital, raising our profile, and also providing some very practical business benefits to smaller enterprises who can promote themselves in the city centre to a wider audience.

That's a flavour of some of the work that we've been developing under the Umbrella of BETS

I should say that the report also refers to wider funding and policy development. I mentioned briefly earlier that we have a role to ensure that the wider business support system in the region and locally does properly address the changing business environment and technical and financial challenges which carbon reduction targets pose to the business community.

Now what's happened in the last year is that nationally the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulator Reform (BERR) has been trying to simplify the business support system, refining many hundreds of business support initiatives and products out there; some exist at a local level, led by councils and Chambers of Commerce, but others are led by the RDA and by a whole raft of agencies.

It's been a particular concern that the offer of business support properly includes the right kind of practical advice and information, consultancy support for businesses on better energy efficiency and general environmental, waste minimisation practice.

There are a number of schemes that have operated nationally, including Envirowise, but in this region and in the city we're building on a very successful programme funded under the EU "Objective 2" scheme (it's just coming to an end) but this scheme funded hands-on support and advice to businesses in the "Objective 2" wards - the five inner city wards plus Filwood.

This was a very successful programme. It has now been adopted and rolled out to the whole region. Last summer SWRDA announced a further expansion of the programme, and it is now available to any small enterprise that needs this support. Our job in the Council, certainly, is to ensure that the resources are being channelled to the business community in Bristol.

Through the input that we have to influence the new business support simplification programme, because we're including environmental business measures in our economic strategy - which is due to be published later this year - we are pushing this issue as a priority for resources.

The Council does not deliver this support directly, but I think through the BETS initiative we have identified some of the leading suppliers in terms of consultancy companies and we hope that by supporting the supply chain for the sector through these networking and promotional initiatives we will provide a stronger supply sector for the benefit of the whole business community in the city

It's a symbiotic relationship. By nurturing the roots of the supply chain we can address in this city and the wider region more of the technical advice needs from our own network. Of course there are national experts who need to be drawn in and one of the aims of this conference/expo in June is to try to build partnerships and collaborations with other regions as well as within our own South-West region.

Finally, two other points that are covered in the report:

It's important to emphasise that The West of England Partnership Office are also fully on board with the BETS initiative and contributing particularly in the area of advice and resources with a view to longer-term promotion of the Bristol Environmental Technology sector in national and international markets.

That's quite a challenge - we need to participate in a wider range of trade expos and events nationally in the coming years if we are to be genuinely up to the mark as a Green Capital.

In terms of the Local Area Agreements, it's not quite clear exactly what will come through, but there will be obviously provision for carbon management targets which will have huge implications for the commercial and business sectors in the city that they will need to be contributing and a huge proportion of emissions comes from the commercial sector. So that is another mechanism we will use to monitor our performance.

To summarise: various developments have given us a current rating on the carbon management audit of "Fair to Good". We think that we could move even higher, providing that we carry through and deliver on these various initiatives.

The last point (4.8) notes that we don't have dedicated staff for servicing BETS - we draw on resources from our two departments. That's something we want to look at in the coming year: whether we can make faster progress through a dedicated sector team.

We have done quite a lot just based on partnership working and drawing in resources from the SWRDA who we expect will be a co-funder of this expo event. We're also drawing on the Universities and the private sector, including Legal and Accountancy companies, to support this expo.

I think I'll pause there. I've covered the main points raised in Section 4.

TRANSCRIPT END 31:07

There is a further half hour of questions and answers if you're particularly keen, in which you'll hear about all the work they've done building a database of 200 companies. Apparently they don't get a Yellow Pages delivered to the Council House. What else can I say, but BINGO!

P.S. Does anyone remember "Bristol Forward!". It's the top search for "regeneration" at Bristol Council, and links to a now defunct external site offering a one-stop shop for Regeneration, MP3s and Adult Content.

Well, I tried. I sat through the first hour of the Climate Change Select Committee, but I just couldn't face the PowerPoint slides. Sorry. All three hours of the meeting are available from the Webcast Archive.

On the plus side, I learnt a great deal about the Bristol Environmental Technologies and Services (BETS) Project. More to follow, including a transcript of elements of the BETS presentation from the Select Committee. Trust me, you'll love it.

On to the main point: I've updated the Buzzword Bingo Game Card. The PDF Version is available for download here:

http://www.jamesbarlow.co.uk/files/councilbingo.pdf

Let me know what you think...

This Rogues Gallery is the Council's Climate Change Select Committee.

I've got the afternoon off tomorrow (Thursday 24th) for a bit of personal admin, as the army calls it, and after that's all done, as a service to the people of Bristol, I'm thinking about popping in to the next meeting of this august body (14:00-16:00). Admittedly, I could just go home and use the excellent Webcasting service, but I've heard rumours that you can scarf free tea and sandwiches if you blag your way into the Lord Mayor's inner sanctum.

The order of the day: Save the Planet by stopping all that horrid economic growth, obviously. (Who could possibly want any more of that?). But trying to be more specific, I've got no idea what purpose this committee serves, other than to give the members the opportunity to say "I'm tackling Climate Change" while striking a dramatic pose.

The Work Programme for the committes says they will be considering Energy Efficiency of Council Houses (surely a matter for the Physical Environment Committee), Planning Issues (surely a matter for the Development Control Committees) and promoting walking and cycling (surely a matter for the Transport Scrutiny Committee). So what have they been up to?

Within Bristol, current activity has focused on supporting the growing Environmental Technology Sector including through the Bristol Environmental Technology Sector (BETS) network and promoting the objectives of the Green Capital initiative to local businesses. The BETS network is developing well and has produced an Action Plan for 2008-09 covering the themes of Networking and Communication, External Promotion and Inward Investment, and Workspace and Cluster Development. Examples of activity include themed networking events, an Expo and Conference in June 2008, and inward investment and business development activities.

That would be "nothing", then.

No doubt they all mean well, but really - what's the point? Our Government (no - not Parliament, I mean the real one) has decreed 15% of domestic energy will come from renewable sources by 2020. This top-down energy planning will probably do the job of reducing carbon emissions, albeit this ambitious policy does come with a few minor side effects. A typical British household will end up paying £10.00 a week extra for their household electricity.

Now, if we're all going to be paying an extra £500 quid a year for our domestic energy because of national level attempts to "tackle climate change", it seems a bit excessive to start gilding the lily by adding more and more control and reduction measures at local level, particularly when we're already paying an eye-wateringly high council tax bill.

I suppose it's all fairly harmless. The members of this Select Committee don't get any extra cash above their Basic Allowance of £11,000. The officers involved are all operating at the boundaries of productive employment anyway, so the marginal loss of their time is pretty irrelevant. It's probably better than having them roaming the streets.

If anyone fancies playing some buzzword bingo (you can play along at home) here's a player's card for you:

Bingo Card

Pick two rows and two columns - a modest prize will be awarded to the winner as verified from the webcast, to consist of a carbon offset certificate entitling you to hold your breath for ten minutes as a means of dramatically reducing your carbon emmissions and thus your impact on Mother Earth.

Via Sustainable Redland, news that the Royal College of Physicians is holding a conference on Climate Change. Good grief, what next? The International Panel on Climate Change holding a conference on Bowel Cancer? The Millenarian tendency in the Climate Change community has officially jumped the shark.

A few months ago a rather disreputable film on Climate Change, The Great Global Warming Swindle was shown by Channel 4. It was a poorly done effort, from Martin Durkin who - under the brand name Kugelblitz - has a history of fighting propaganda with propaganda rather than truth.

Durkin is associated with the former Revolutionary Communist Party clique surrounding Frank Furedi, which is at its most visible at the website Sp!ked Online. This group seem to have good intentions, and they're generally espousing an attractive mix of positive humanism and common sense. Indeed, Furedi was one of the better commentators in the documentary Mine Your Own Business, recently exhibited by the Redland Ward Conservatives. But the ex-RCPers also have an instinct to win the battle by any means, even at the expense of losing the war. I can't help thinking "Once a communist; always a communist."

A better critique of Millenarian/Catastrophic Climate Change theory is available here, produced and narrated by Warren Meyer, a small business owner (and therefore someone with a hundred times the moral authority of a journalist or politician). Bit of a large download unfortunately. but you can stream it from here at lower resolution. If I find a torrent tracker I'll post it in the comments.