We are constantly hearing that moving to a low carbon economy will bring higher costs for businesses and consumers.  Higher costs are used by business as the best excuse for inaction.  We need to think more thoughtfully about this statement before we keep repeating it.  A lower carbon economy can be achieved immediately by being more thoughtful about what we use, when we use it and how we choose what we choose.  Using less energy is good business and it helps in a recession.

We are using more energy because we are are careless or lazy about it.  The reduction in energy use from not using energy,  using it less or switching to a switch to energy saving technologies is all within our reach.  Generally it requires little or low costs.  Not enough thought is being given in Government policy to force energy reduction across businesses.  This kind of policy benefits everyone and is recession proof because it is something companies could be doing anyway.  All it requires is thought and planning, not necessarily large capital expenditure budgets.

Helping business reduce its energy and waste has to be the first priority.  As the Australian Government has been advised by its climate expert, reducing the amount of energy wasted is the first first step.  In the UK, it is estimated that 30% of household energy is wasted, that is a huge amount of power.

Government should incentivise lower energy use and reward lower energy rather than tax high energy use which seems to be the current policy.  In that event companies might be given tax breaks for hitting energy reduction targets. 
Then  lowering your carbon waste, is actually good business sense.

Let's get the sense that moving to a low carbon economy is an additional business cost.  It isn't necessarily wasted energy, generally speaking all energy and engine technologies are more fuel efficient that they ever have been.

It is therefore to the advantage of businesses to be more efficient. This they can achieve by moving to low carbon technology.