The third Prince's May Day Summit on climate change - 1 May 2009

On 1 May, Business in the Community (BITC) convened for the third time The Prince’s May Day Summit on climate change at 10 event locations across the UK.  The Summit is the UK’s largest gathering of businesses committed to taking action to tackle the issue.

The live ‘hub’ event took place in Billingsgate in London and was broadcast live online, where the speakers included HRH The Prince of Wales, President of BITC, John Ashton - Special Representative for Climate Change, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and Sir Stuart Rose, Executive Chairman, Marks and Spencer and Chairman, BITC.
 
Attended by representatives of UK businesses estimated to employ between 3-4 million people, the event’s key message was that it is business that has the leveraging power to take action, lead by example and influence their employees and the government to take action now to tackle the climate crisis.

Ice thickness worse than 'most aggressive forecasts'

The immediacy of the need to take action was illustrated in a unique way by a live link up to Pen Hadow, an arctic explorer and leader of the Catlin Arctic Survey survey team, who are measuring the impact of climate change on the ice caps. Live in front of the influential audience, Pen Hadow was able to illustrate in real terms just how much impact climate change is having on the thickness of the ice, and that the grave reality is worse than even the most aggressive forecasts predicted.

In his address that followed the link up to Pen Hadow, HRH Prince of Wales warned that the May Day global distress call is still going unanswered and that the ‘doomsday clock’ really is ticking. Mixed with this message of urgency, the event’s other key theme was that taking action within the context of a recession has never been more important, and has real benefits for business too.
 
In his keynote speech, Ed Milliband indicated that the UK is well positioned to be at the forefront of a low carbon future, marking a world first with legally-binding ‘carbon budgets’ and leading the way with pioneering techniques such as carbon capture and storage.
 
In a video case study, BSkyB illustrated how by taking full advantage of technology, they’re saving money and the environment by reducing the amount of miles its staff have to travel by instead using video conferencing and other forms of communication.

Also, while speaking at the London May Day event, The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson pledged that £3 million will be spent on 10 flagship, Low Carbon Zones in a move that will create jobs and slash energy bills in the capital.

'Though the recession will end, climate change will not stop'

In his address, Sir Stuart Rose commented on how greener practices can be profitable, though he also added a warning too that ‘though the recession will end, climate change will not stop’. This was also shared by Stephen Howard, Business in the Community Chief Executive, who contrasted the permanence of the climate crisis against the recession by saying that ‘nature doesn’t do bailouts’.

May Day Carbon UK report

View the report which found that two-thirds of Britain’s bosses are unaware that a new law (the Carbon Reduction Commitment) will soon compel them to account for their companies’ carbon emissions »