A leading Midland academic has called for the Government to write green provisos into its banking bailout plans.

Coventry University professor Malcolm McIntosh has said the financial turmoil has created an opportunity for the Government to rethink the way it supports the green economy.

He believes the Government should build on its decisive action in supporting stricken banks by simultaneously taking strong action to force them to invest in green technology.

“The real trick is if they can match economy and ecology - to get Gordon Brown to match the work he’s done in leading the global economy to match that to climate change.

“If governments investing in banks said they have got to follow green investments it would be a fantastic opportunity to turn the economy round and grow very real jobs.

“If we can get the brains in the right places it should be a chance for us to rethink the way the economy works. The opportunities are vast, and billions can be made in this area.”

Prof McIntosh, director of the university's Applied Research Centre in Human Security, added that individual businesses, as well as the UK Government, also needed to grasp the climate change nettle in order to reap long-term benefits.

“There are two sorts of business - those who get it and who know that society and their business has got to be radically different.

“And then there are those who are still laggardly and are playing catch-up.

“Companies that will succeed are those that are very eco-efficient and who understand energy efficiency in their supply chain is key to survive.”

Prof McIntosh also pointed to the example of Toyota, which has had enormous success with its hybrid vehicles, as a good example of a company which embraced the climate change imperative early on and which is now reaping the benefits.

The automaker recently unseated General Motors as global sales leader in the world’s car market.

Prof McIntosh, who is also Professor of Human Security and Sustainable Enterprise at Coventry University, is one of the driving forces behind the Down To Earth conference taking place on 31st October to 1st November.

Being held at the sustainably-designed Wessex Water building in Bath, the conference looks at how the UK can make the transition to a low carbon sustainable enterprise economy.

“The conference is about bringing people together from different businesses, professions and different academic disciplines to talk about the emerging low carbon and sustainable enterprise economy,” said Prof McIntosh.

“We can now build a new economy which answers the climate change imperative, which doesn’t have the financial turbulence we are now seeing and which distributes wealth evenly around the planet.”

“If people are in any doubt about the possibility of doing this, there are examples of real possible change all around the world.

“But in order to do this we need to get people talking to each other who wouldn’t normally talk to each other, for example getting a management consultant talking to a development specialist.

“We need to talk about what this new economy looks like and look at best practice from around the world.”

Shell and Wessex Water are sponsoring the conference, now in its second year, which is set to attract attendees from both the public and private sector including representatives from the UN and various NGOs.

Speakers include Charlie Brown, Ikea UK’s corporate environment manager and Ted Cantle, Professor at the Institute of Community Cohesion at Coventry University and Deputy Chair of the Environment Agency.