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All RDAs across England are closing by March 2012 (see transition and closure section). With our resources reducing steadily, this page has not been recently updated and the information below may not be current. If in doubt, please contact us directly.

Working for the environment

South West England is well-placed to set a good example with regards to economic growth within environmental limits.

The South West RDA is leading the region's transformation to a low carbon economy by helping businesses embrace the opportunities of climate change and tackle the challenges of global warming.

We want to do this, however, not by shifting responsibility for a carbon-emitting economy to other regions and parts of the world, but by shaping an economy where developing innovative techniques to reduce our carbon footprint and becoming a home for low-carbon technologies helps to encourage further investment and growth.

We all depend on natural resources - whether individuals, companies or communities. Our challenge is to break the link between using more of the Earth’s resources and a degraded environment by encouraging businesses to use their resources more wisely in a way that also makes them more competitive.

We are therefore focusing our efforts and investment on the following key areas:


We know that the environment can be an important element of productivity-led growth. There are significant opportunities in the environmental technologies sector - globally one of the fastest growing industries - and also productivity gains to be made from businesses across the region using natural resources in a more efficient way.

The environment underpins up to 15 per cent of our economy: offering a huge global market in environmental technologies and services, and creating a strong image of a dynamic and forward-looking region.

Boy stood in front of wind turbines

Lanoyce woodchip boiler pipes