What statistics do you think about when you hear the phrase ??sustainable economic development???

What statistics do you think about when you hear the phrase ??sustainable economic development??? Is it that after two decades of record global growth our world??s population is predicted to reach nine billion by 2050? That currently over $1 trillion is ??invested?? annually to subsidize our exploitation of fossil which resulted in the expulsion of 440 giga-tonnes (GtCO2) of Co2 since 2000? Or that at current rates, 13 million hectares of forest (or just under twice the size of Scotland) is lost per year and that closer to home one-third of Dumfries & Galloway??s larch tree population is dead or dying due to a warmth loving fungus normally destroyed in colder winters?

Current calculations estimate that to keep the temperature rise of the planet at less than 2C we must release less than 825 GtCO2 in the next 35 years ?? bearing in mind that 440 giga-tonnes figure over 14 years mentioned above.

??Sustainable economic development?? isn??t just a nice idea then, it??s a matter of great urgency.

The predicted 2C rise is serious enough but at current growth and activity levels we can expect a temperature rise of somewhere between 3-6C. This will result in a 1-1.5 metres average sea level rise - seriously endangering low lying populated countries such as the Phillipines and cities such as Amsterdam and making large tracts of our current habitable land mass flooded. This would probably create the largest global mass migration of hungry and landless people ever seen, and worryingly UKIP, looking likely to be a significant force in the future of UK politics, persists in being less than positive about green energy and green growth.

So what on earth can ??sustainable economic development?? do?

A simple way would be use of the ??triple bottom line?? concept. Our planet's population growth has led to global challenges such one billion, 1.3 billion and 2.6 billion people currently without safe drinking water, electricity and sanitation respectively. These and other challenges need to be addressed from a social, environmental as well as economic perspective and typically we are seeking solutions that deliver strong progress while minimising or avoiding harm to any of these three areas.

Good ideas are all around and not just the reserve of high growth private sector enterprises. Our academic institutions, voluntary and public sector organisations, communities and citizens all have a role to play and must all work in partnership together. Many useful ideas have been researched, tried and tested successfully or unsuccessfully around the globe and all that knowledge and experience is just waiting to be identified and applied to own country, and vice versa.

Yet the key challenge is often not only the identification of these ideas but their transition into the marketplace. Entrepreneurs with new products and services often find it difficult to access appropriate networks and acquire the human and financial resources to get their idea off the ground. The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) is trying to bridge the gap between good ideas and practical solutions and launched Scotland??s first low carbon idea incubator ?? the Low Carbon Ideas Lab ?? to do just that.

The lab seeks to identify promising ideas owned by individuals, enterprises and organisations seeking to create and test innovative products and services. The lab provides dedicated office space, mentorship from Scotland??s Climate 2020 Group of business leaders, dedicated support and access to ECCI's diverse community of low carbon practitioners for up to 1 year.

After a rigorous dragon??s-den-style recruitment process, ECCI has appointed its first four residents. These include a ??closed-loop?? urban micro-farm, a mobile app that promotes an intelligent approach to buying (and reducing) the purchase of clothes, a riverbed micro-hydro electricity device that works in harmony with its habitat, and Scotland??s first geothermal energy consultancy.

A second round of applications will open again in the new year and all graduates of the Low Carbon Ideas Lab will be encouraged to move on or up into ECCI??s Innovation Suite, a shared working space for enterprise, voluntary and public sector organisations. Good low carbon ideas and solutions are everywhere. ECCI is leading the charge in Scotland to seek them out and make ??sustainable economic development?? more than just a bunch of statistics.