Ready, willing and renewable

Barack Obama spoke of a giant US public construction programme in his inauguration speech.

A realignment of the world’s economies is in order, and the construction industry must be prepared for change, says Tony Blair. As we stand on the brink of an inevitable green revolution, Assistant Editor Jamie Stewart finds out what the former British prime minister has to say.

“Change we can believe in.” Sound like a familiar phrase? It should. The world’s most powerful man, Barack Obama, ascended to the US Presidency last week on the back of this campaign slogan, accepting his role on January 20 in Washington DC.

And it is change, on a global scale, that is the subject of discussion the following day for former British prime minister Tony Blair, speaking before delivering his closing speech to the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi.

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The concept of “change” will become increasingly synonymous with economic and industrial progress over the coming years. The construction industry across the GCC is building cities that will operate with less dependence on oil, in support of diverse economies.

And the source of the energy that drives this growth will itself change. President Obama’s inauguration speech indicated an encroaching shift in US policy towards the enthusiastic embracement of renewable energy.

“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories,” Obama declared in words that resonated around the world.

“And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age,” the president added.

Planning ahead
Less than 24 hours later, Tony Blair espouses the concept of industrial change that will occur over the coming years, referring to “the reengineering of our economies that is required,” if CO² emissions are to be abated.

He is careful to acknowledge that large scale industrial evolution in the present financial situation is a lot to ask, but he expresses faith in Obama’s US $700 billion (AED2.6 trillion) bailout plan, which has at its heart a public construction package centered around roads and bridges.

“There has got to be a fiscal stimulus – a package of reflationary measures – and construction is obviously a major part of that,” Blair tells Construction Week. “I think President Obama is absolutely right to do that.”

Such a package should have wide ranging, and positive, repercussions for the global construction industry. “I think that move will be mirrored in other economies by other governments around the world,” Blair says.

So there may be light at the end of what is becoming an increasingly dark tunnel for the global construction sector, with the symptoms of recession – job losses and recruitment freezes – now common place. So how far away is the sector from stepping into the light?