Call for ‘real leadership’ on climate

A SUFFOLK entrepreneur is calling for the UK to show “real leadership” at a United Nations (UN) conference on climate change.

Steve Sharratt OBE, who runs green energy provider Bio Group, said Britain must continue to show leadership, both form business and from politics at the 2011 UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, which gets under way at the end of this month.

It will seek to advance the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached last December.

Mr Sharratt, whose company designed, built and operates Adnams Bio Energy facility in Southwold, which converts local food waste from local sites into biomethane used as green gas for the national grid, is currently developing a �5million facility in Stockport that will open in October 2012.

The talks are “crucial” for further progress on the environment, he said.

“2011 has seen global investment in renewables and clean tech exceed fossil fuel investment for the first time ever.” he said.

“This means that business is absolutely serious about delivering low carbon goods and services across the planet.”

Solving the pressing demands of the current economic crisis must not be at the expense of dealing with the environment, he said.