NEG talk at the Friends of the River Cam meeting 28/04/21

This talk about the Oxford-Cambridge Arc plans was given to a meeting of Friends of the River Cam on 28/04/21. The talk covers a brief history of Arc plans, a variety of 'alternative' Arcs or hubs of development in the UK and points out how 'silo thinking' by a variety of Ministries and agencies has led to solutions that are mutually incompatible.

The talk then discusses the meaning and application of Net Biodiversity Gain and Natural Capital Accounting as they will be applied to the Arc (and elsewhere). There are serious, but different flaws in both methods, and neither is fit for purpose. Analyses of past attempts at Net Gain or No Net Loss show that success is variable, and is more likely in some habitats, for example wetlands, than in others, for example forests, where a recent global review found no successful No Net Loss projects at all.

The Dasgupta report and others have identified the need to consider 'Wealth' as the sum of both stock and yield of human, produced, and natural capitals. Traditional economics concentrated only on one sort of yield, i.e. GDP (or GVA) from one sort of stock, (produced) to the detriment of all others, but especially of natural capital, the stock of which was diminished as produced yields increased. Sustainability can only be achieved when wealth is maintained or increased.

Ox-Cam Arc plans to 'double nature' are challenged; first because no-one has any clear idea of what should be doubled and second because no-one has any clear idea of how to do it. The highly fragmented nature of Priority Habitats across the Arc reveals the extent of the challenge. We need both bigger, better and more joined-up natural habitats and bigger, better and more joined-up thinking about all Ox-Cam Arc plans. The talk is about 44 minutes long, and you can download the slides from here (these will open in a separate window, so that you can check any details during the talk itself).

There then followed a question and answer session covering such topics as the involvement of wildlife and other NGOs in Arc plans, the supply of water to the region, the role of Cambridge and Oxford Colleges in Arc developments, East-West Rail, the democratic deficit in all Arc plans to date, and offsetting by oil companies.

The 27 minute Q&A session is shown separately in the video on the right. The session was run by the meeting Chair, Tony Booth, educationalist and environmental activist. Apart from the speaker, it also features several members of the Friends of the River Cam Steering Group, including Monica Bijok Hone (campaigner on water issues), Terry Macalister (journalist and co-author of Crude Britannia) and Wendy Blythe, Chair of the Federation of Cambridge Residents' Associations (FeCRA).