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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » Last week's mothballing of the Corus steel-making plant in Redcar drew the curtain down on a proud tradition stretching back 150 years on Teesside.
The official line is that 1,600 jobs will be lost, but hundreds more will go as the pain of last week's action reverberates through the North-east supply chain.
The mood on Teesside has been darkened by the Government's failure to offer concrete financial backing for a plant that was once seen as a crown jewel of UK manufacturing.
As night is followed by dawn, though, the mothballing of the plant could mark the beginning of a new era of steelmaking on Teesside.
That depends entirely on finding a buyer for a site that knocked ã130m off Corus' balance sheet in the third quarter last year.
But the plant achieved a return to profitability in December, which suggests it could yet be turned into a sustainable operation if someone was prepared to back it with hard cash.
The mothballed plant is not dead yet - it's merely on life support. And the speed of its recovery depends on how quickly Corus can find a new buyer.
In light of recent events, people could be forgiven for wanting a locally-based, wealthy consortium to spearhead any takeover, not an axe-wielding foreign conglomerate with little understanding of North-east economics.
But in the absence of a local white knight, direct foreign investment should not be ruled out.
Although the ground-swell of opinion is that Corus owner Tata has sold Teesside down the river, several local companies have been strengthened by the financial muscle of their foreign parents.
Twenty-first century world trade is a global business and Corus should be casting the net far and wide to secure a new buyer - and quickly.
Time-scales should be set to avoid a repeat of the Vaux/ Tesco fiasco in Sunderland, where a prime city centre spot has been left to rot for 11 years amid political wrangling over land ownership.
The Redcar site is too strategically, symbolically and culturally important to be kicked into the long grass.
And the Government needs to hammer home that message to Corus bosses to ensure attempts at a sale don't slip off the management agenda.
Over to you, Messrs Mandelson and Brown.
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