Media Isle of Man had the honour of being part of Energy Sustainability Centre's recent 'Roundtable' session, organised by MMC and hosted by Capital International Group.
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00:00My desire and passion now that I have more time on my hands, not working for a living as such, but using my enthusiasm and experience that educates everyone on the art of man, that the time to do something is now.
00:18It's almost actually a case of the art of man's purposes. I get a sense that we've done too little too late already.
00:25So time is of the essence, we have to crack on with a lot of things now. I'd like to spread the word, the education piece, on where we're at and where we're going in terms of climate change predictions.
00:38And we all have to do our bit towards being more resilient and sustainable in the future. Whether that means in an individual household, you do stretch yourself to having, if you've got enough roof space, to have a solar panel and some battery storage, that's doing your bit.
00:58Recycling is doing your bit. Protecting your property is doing your bit. Identify if you're in a flood risk zone in the future. Protect yourself, protect your property, that's a great thing.
01:12And the bigger scale for organisations and government is to look at their own adaptations and mitigation for the impacts of climate change, become more resilient, secure your infrastructure and your network so that you will have that ability to cope with what's coming our way.
01:34And just accept that. That it's going to cost money, that's one thing. What we haven't got is time. So basically wake up, pile up your hand, crack on with all these things as soon as possible. In fact, start tomorrow, not next year. Have that ambitious target to get ahead of the curve, to be ready for the impacts of climate change.
01:59Should have come to you last Peter, that's a good answer.
02:03I've learned from today, and Anthony said it, everyone said it, collaboration, I think that's, you know, I'm lucky you've come to me first rather than go round, but I think we can all take from today that none of us can do it on our own, we can all make it, we can all do something.
02:21But what's clear is we won't do anything if we don't collaborate. I think it's key and that's private, third sector, government, everyone needs to get together and push in one direction, otherwise we won't do anything.
02:40That's absolutely correct. I would add to that a stronger national framework and more ambitious targets. I think those two will drive change at a pace that we've not enjoyed so far.
02:55We've talked about making Biosphere step up, so I'm going to use almost a pairing of these two. There's currently a piece of work, a land management framework, we call it terrestrial spatial planning.
03:10We need to get everyone on the same page, we don't need one government department with a map of where the trees are going and another one for where the agriculture and food is and another one for where development is and another one for the biodiversity strategy.
03:23We need to have a proper joined up approach to what the island's going to look like and then overlay it all and have those difficult conversations so that we're all on the page of where our, you know, either high integrity carbon credits or farming food for the future.
03:39We need one plan, so I'm hoping that the land management framework will be a big step forward to the island getting that joined up plan.
03:47So yeah, the public-private partnership is really the goal, but the way I would see that happening, and hopefully people would then understand the benefits of it, would be to have a community project.
04:01So imagine if the MUA's project was actually open to the community, so the community could invest in it, then they've actually got a stake in it and that's very real and that happens in Europe, it happens all over.
04:11So, you know, it's not a, it wouldn't be a new, if you use the old man concept, the government to actually work for the people, but it would not be new elsewhere.
04:19But I think then, because the carrot and the stick, the stick would be a carbon tax.
04:23So you have a community project to see the benefits of it and then you follow that with the carbon tax.
04:30Thank you, John.
04:32So I'll give you two.
04:34Officially, I'd like planning permission for the MUA.
04:39Early 2026.
04:45But, just reflecting perhaps on this discussion, perhaps also on some of the discussions that I've certainly seen just in the last year even,
04:54I'd like to know that we're raising the level of the conversation and that it's in everyone's consciousness.
05:00When we were down at the Gaia Earth installation that's been in St Thomas' Church over the last couple of weeks,
05:07I'm so struck by the people that come out having a different level of conversation about the planet, about climate change, about the impacts and about what individuals can do.
05:17And if every individual felt like that, then these discussions would be a heck of a lot easier.
05:23So let's hope for that in the next few years.
05:25And that's like 13,000 people, that's like the website.
05:27Over 13,000 in three weeks.
05:30That's quite incredible.
05:32Well done.