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.