We need to show respect to firms doing the right thing on climate change - Mark Casci

If ever you required proof of the urgency of the impact that climate change is bound to have on us all then you need look no further than a recent report from JP Morgan.
The climate emergency is realThe climate emergency is real
The climate emergency is real

It is fair to say that the international financial sector has hardly been the vanguard for those warning about the impact of human behaviour is having on our environment.

However, economists at JP Morgan penned a note to clients using language one would expect from Extinction Rebellion, saying that life “as we know it” may be under threat and warned of “catastrophic outcomes” if work was not undertaken to arrest the issue.

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The news comes as researchers at Brown University claimed that as many as one in four tweets on the matter of climate change were produced by so-called ‘Bots’ – fake accounts designed to appear as real people – with the majority of the ersatz accounts posting messages questioning whether humanity was adversely impacted by the environment.

TeslaTesla
Tesla

The importance of protecting the environment has slowly but surely been working its way up to the top of the priority list for corporations.

For some time, many at the top of our largest companies will have considered it at best a distraction and at worst a clear and present danger to their bottom lines which must be discredited.

Mercifully, the urge to discredit has been eroded from corporate thinking with the realisation that failing to make a contribution to minimising environmental damage is far more likely to damage profits than protect them.

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Yorkshire is coming off the back of two severe storms in just two weeks, the damage from which will doubtless run to tens of millions of pounds.

Arrow car at LBAArrow car at LBA
Arrow car at LBA

So-called once in a generation floods are now happening with such increasing regularity that to describe them as such has passed the point of oxymoronic.

Communities in the Calder Valley and Yorkshire Dales are once again counting the cost of damage caused by extreme weather and the likes of York and Leeds only missed out on similar disruption owing to improving mitigation infrastructure and downright good luck.

This year it is likely that Leeds is to become home to a Clean Air Zone, with polluting vehicles to be subject to a charge in order to discourage them from entering the confines of the zone.

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It is highly likely that other Yorkshire cities will not be far behind.

The council is to be commended on embracing this steep challenge, as it should also be for its consistent lobbying for improved flood protections and for access to vastly improved public transport networks to replace the currently woefully inadequate system which leaves many with no option other than to drive to work.

That is why I could not help be baffled by its recent decision to decline a request from one of the city’s taxi companies to be allowed access to its chiefly unoccupied bus lanes.

Arrow Cars is investing millions to replace its current fleet of taxis with electric Tesla Series 3 vehicles. The firm had initially planned to make the investment – worth some £5m – two years ago but abandoned the plan after the council denied their request to use the bus lanes, despite allowing diesel belching private hire vehicles to do so.

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Arrow, to its credit, is going ahead with the investment, saying that other cities in the UK in which it operates make the dispensation and that it is doing so driven by consumer demand for cleaner travel. Other taxi firms in the city will doubtless follow suit.

That coupled with the recent revelations in our sister title, the YEP, that the council had amassed well in excess of £1m in fines in a single year from motorists using the bus lanes, despite some being genuine mistakes or breakdowns, suggests that officers and councillors may wish to apply to the same level of common sense to the micro issues when it comes to the environment as it does the large-scale issues.

The battle for hearts and minds on climate change is far from won, and matters such as these do little to help the cause.

And when a successful private enterprise decides to do the right thing it should be rewarded, not penalised.