Welsh Companies Point The Way To The Future Economy At Downing St
Four days before the start of critical global climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, a forward thinking company from Wales has been invited to Downing Street to showcase how the UK’s low emission innovation and partnership are already shaping business for the future economy.
Among 100 companies gathering in Downing Street on Thursday evening who have embraced the low carbon economy will be the developers of leading-edge cattle feed supplements, Neem Biotech.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:
‘Our transition to a low emission economy will be a key driver of our future economic prosperity. Neem Biotech is at the forefront of this transformation.'
Based in Cardiff, Neem Biotech uses an extract from garlic to reduce cows’ methane production. Twenty percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from cows, sheep and other ruminants. Branded as Mootral and mixed into cattle feed, the product also increases milk production in dairy cows, and makes food conversion in beef cattle 10 per cent more efficient. Neem has exported other products, and continues to use UK Trade & Investment’s services to help take its business to the world.
Lord Davies, Minister for Trade, Investment and Small Business, said:
‘The world is engaged in a race to low carbon. Acting early will mean we are well positioned in the new industries that are being created, at the forefront of the technological and social shift that will define the next century. The transition to an economy that minimises climate change impact is therefore everybody’s business and everybody’s opportunity.
‘The UK’s lead in this area makes us well-placed to secure new business overseas and act as a global hub products, services and technologies. This is a fine example of how a company with low emission products and services is already seeking out opportunity and shaping the UK’s future economy.’
At the same event, leading UK and international companies are backing the Prime Minister in the push for an ambitious and equitable deal that can contribute to sustainable prosperity.
The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change will present a communiqué endorsed by more than 850 companies to Gordon Brown. The Corporate Leaders Group includes John Lewis, Shell, Tesco, Kingfisher, Vodafone, Unilever and Lloyds Banking Group.
The communiqué sets out the business case for a strong and effective UN climate framework and underlines that economic development will not be sustained unless the climate is stabilised, making it critical that we move beyond the global downturn in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth.
The global market for low carbon goods and services is already worth over £3 trillion and is expected to exceed £4.5 trillion by 2015.
The UK market for low carbon and environmental goods and services is the sixth largest in the world. It is presently worth around £107bn – over 7% of GDP - and is set to grow by £45 billion by 2015. Manufacturing currently makes up 30.8% of this activity, compared with about 20% in the UK economy as a whole.
It employs 880,000 people, rising to an estimated 1.2 million by 2015.
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18 January 2010
