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New global alliance seeks to propel clean energy in emerging economies

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The World Economic Forum has launched of a new alliance to provide a platform for developing economies to raise awareness about their clean energy needs, share best practices and sustainably accelerate their energy transitions.

The Network to Mobilize Clean Energy Investment for the Global South is made up of 20+ CEOs and government ministers, including from across Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, Kenya and South Africa. The network will provide a collaborative space for its members to accelerate clean energy capital solutions in emerging market contexts – through innovative policies, new business models, de-risking tools and finance mechanisms – and exchange best practices for attracting sustainable flows of clean energy capital.

“Accelerating the clean energy transition is imperative to address the climate emergency, but current investment levels remain far below the scale and pace of change needed,” said Roberto Bocca, Head of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Energy and Materials. “Unlocking this financing today is not only a key first step towards a secure and equitable energy system tomorrow, but represents a clear opportunity for businesses, as emerging economies account for the lion’s share of the global population.”

The Forum also released a new Forum report today, Building Trust through an Equitable and Inclusive Energy Transition, that outlines a framework to guide policy-makers and business leaders from the energy sector towards a just, equitable and inclusive energy transition, particularly in developing economies, which account for less than one-fifth of global clean energy investments. Its findings make clear that neglecting equity, justice and inclusivity could severely delay the transition, making it crucial to address these aspects holistically at all levels – local, national and global.

The overall annual investment in clean energy in the Global South needs to triple from $770 billion currently to $2.2-2.8 trillion by the early 2030s. While recent spending has increased, the report finds that it remains concentrated in a few countries and sectors, with over 90% of investment growth having occurred in advanced economies and China since 2021.

The network will be chaired by two global leaders, working closely with the World Economic Forum to shape its activities: Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, and Samaila Zubairu, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation.

“The network will play a crucial role in bringing together public and private players to pinpoint investment needs, breaking down barriers, and unlocking practical solutions for a just, equitable and sustainable energy transition in the Global South,” said Al-Mashat. “This will be a new space for emerging economies to exchange best practices and lessons learned, and foster collaboration around value chain strategies, regulatory policies, and investment mechanisms. These issues and more are addressed elaborately in the “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just financing”, launched during COP27 by the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation, with 100+ partners, which also introduces for the first time a definition for just financing.”

As well as galvanizing efforts around the energy transition, the new network highlights the growing importance and untapped potential of emerging nations to the global economy. Seizing these opportunities presents a dual opportunity, as it could help mitigate risks in emerging markets while also ensuring sustainable growth and positive societal impacts.

“The perception of high risk has deterred investments in emerging markets, particularly in Africa, over the years; yet, from where I sit, there is no shortage of de-risking instruments and bankable projects that not only deliver profitable returns but also accelerate development impact,” said Zubairu. “Mobilizing investment for the energy transition is now more urgent. It is time for us to shift the narrative surrounding the financing of clean energy in the Global South from an aid case to a viable investment opportunity, without which we will not reach global net zero.”

The network will also be critical in enabling clean energy finance and investment at the local level. In this context, a Colombia-focused workstream was announced today. The initiative will convene a multistakeholder working group focused on increasing capital for Colombia’s energy transition.

Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash

Climate finance ‘critical to economic recovery’ say WTO, China and others

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Green energy, innovative technologies and broad inclusivity could help secure an economic rebound in the face of inflation, geopolitical tensions, barriers to trade and talk of ‘decoupling’ that are creating headwinds for the global economy.

That’s according to speakers at speakers in the Braving the Headwinds: Rewiring Growth Amid Fragility session at the World Economic Forum’s Meeting of New Champions event, which asserted that better cooperation is needed to drive growth and address shared challenges.

. Fresh from the New Global Financing Pact in Paris, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said financing remains the biggest obstacle to getting climate projects off the ground. “What is required is urgent action, but we can’t take action if we don’t have oxygen. The oxygen is in fact the capital, the finance that’s needed in order to be able to fuel the activities of both the public sector and the private sector,” she said. “The problem is that there is a serious disparity in the pricing of capital between the global north and the global south. Some of it relates to foreign exchange risk, some of it relates to lack of information and data, some of it relates to lack of confidence with respect to systems and rule of law, some of it is unconscious bias. We have to start where we can make meaningful progress, and that is in the area of finance.”

She was joined by Chris Hipkins, Prime Minister of New Zealand, whose priority is putting climate at the heart of the country’s economy. “We have to ensure what we produce is clean, green and sustainable.” He added that economic growth depends on “an international rules-based system for trade,” and pointed to the success of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as an example of multilateral cooperation.

That multilateralism is under threat, according to Zhang Yuzhou, Chairman, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). “We often hear talks of decoupling and related practices which certainly impede international cooperation and trade,” he said. With restrictions on technologies like chips, Zhang said, “We still see major barriers in terms of the free flow of technology.”

Viet Nam and China, both engines of the economy in Asia, present possible solutions. Growing consumption and investment are expected to drive a 6% uptick in Viet Nam’s GDP this year. “We need to expand our market for export, remove tariffs and barriers and remove trade protection measures,” said Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Viet Nam, adding, “No one country can solve the issues alone.” China expects GDP growth of 5% this year, driven by strong growth in wind power, renewable energyvehicles and other promising green technologies. Zhang said China would still like to see better policy coordination among major economies. “We need to enhance mutual trust so we can grow global economic growth,” he said.

Spreading that growth will help more countries get a piece of the growing economic pie, according to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization. She would like to see supply chains expand beyond the usual markets to places like Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria and Bangladesh. “Let us look at those areas that are friendly to invest in and see if we can centralize and diversify supply chains and bring these areas into the world trade. Integrate them better,” she said. “I’d like the business world to look at this potential.” She also mentioned green trade and digital services as two growth areas that could help more people share in economic prosperity.

Image by Kanenori from Pixabay

Crypto sustainability coalition investigates potential of Web3 against climate change

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The World Economic Forum has launched the Crypto Sustainability Coalition, which will investigate how web3 and blockchain tools can be leveraged to achieve positive climate action.

Web3, which includes technologies like blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs, has become a catch-all term for the vision of a new, better internet. Members of the coalition will explore the potential positive impacts these technologies can bring to environmental and social agendas.

The coalition launch is timely as there is an urgent need to support the decarbonization of cryptocurrency and ensuring the industry is part of the climate solution. Furthermore, there needs to be regulatory clarity that promotes web3 innovation, protects consumers, and improves financial inclusion.

“I am excited about the work we are expecting from the Crypto Sustainability Coalition. An important and unique aspect of web3 is that it uses technology to support and reward direct community engagement and action. This means we can coordinate the work of many individuals directly with one another, enabling collective action without centralized control – a powerful accelerator for grass roots action,” said Brynly Llyr, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets, World Economic Forum.

The Crypto Sustainability Coalition is a public-private initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum and comprises 30 partners. It is convening working groups to tackle three specific issues:

  1. Energy usage – this working group will analyse the crypto industry’s consumption of energy and materials to build a clearer picture of its impacts on climate and nature.
  2. Web3’s potential for climate action – this working group will investigate ways in which web3 innovations could tackle challenges facing the low-carbon transition at the pace required to hit the Paris Agreement’s targets. For example, the decentralized nature of crypto-mining and its ability to operate at off-peak times may provide a new business model for utilities and investors looking to develop renewable energy microgrids.
  3. “On-chain” carbon credits – members of the coalition believe blockchain-based carbon credits could address current flaws in global carbon markets, including: the lack of transparency around carbon offsets for either providers or buyers; the failure of markets to remove carbon emissions at the scale and pace required; and the inability of millions of the world’s smallholder farmers, forest stewards and Indigenous communities to participate in or benefit from carbon credit markets.

The Crypto Sustainability Coalition will investigate, collate and highlight industry standards, best practices and examples of tangible action that attest to how web3 technologies can support communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The coalition’s wider aim is to foster a broad education campaign on what web3’s potential and capacity look like, to better inform governments on how they regulate these technologies and incentivize investment and research into their development.

The coalition’s partners include: Accenture, Avalanche, Avatree, CC Token, Circle, Climate Collective, Crypto Council for Innovation, Emerge, Energy Web Foundation, eToro, EY, Flowcarbon, Heifer International, KlimaDAO, Lukka, NEAR Foundation, PlanetWatch, Plastiks, Rainforest Partnership, Recykal, ReSeed, Ripple, Solana, Stellar Development Foundation, STEWARD, Sustainable Bitcoin Standard, The Global Brain, Toucan Protocol and University of Lisbon.

The new coalition is part of the Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator (CISA), a grant-funded initiative launched by the Forum in January 2022 with a mission to encourage a greater understanding of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts of crypto technologies.

World Economic Forum provides ‘comprehensive’ blueprint for future-ready cities

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The World Economic Forum has released a series of four reports on how cities can take a systems approach to finance and deliver urban transformation projects in the wake of COVID, widening inequality and global conflicts.

Each report – urban inclusion, city financing models, climate preparedness, and technology adoption – guides city leaders with case studies and toolkits to successfully manage digital projects and new financing models to achieve more climate-ready and equitable cities.

The Global Future Council on Cities of Tomorrow (GFC) – comprised of forty-five sector experts from around the world collaborated throughout the pandemic to help struggling cities to build more future-ready communities for all citizens.

“Cities are on the frontlines of climate mitigation and adaptation. They are also under pressure to improve residents’ standard of living and increase community cohesion while progressing towards sustainable development,” said Alice Charles, Lead, Urban Transformation, World Economic Forum. “To meet these high expectations, cities need to develop strategies using a systems perspective to deliver net-zero carbon and climate-resilient urban infrastructure. The Global Future Council on Cities has done an extraordinary job with these reports to provide cities with the tools they need right now.”

Implementing a systems approach across urban sectors: 

  • Rethinking City Revenue and Finance: A systems-approach to financing urban transformation depends on access to a diverse range of revenue sources to advance both traditional and green infrastructure, which also must include investment in operations and maintenance. The report is informed by a survey of 10 city administrations on potential revenue streams, planned initiatives and the policy interventions required to ensure that projects are financially viable.
    • For example, with support from UNHabitat and UNDP, Somaliland implemented a robust property tax and collection system to pay for infrastructure improvements, which increased the capital city’s property tax revenue from $384,115 in 2008 to close to $1.5 million in 2018. This represents up to one third of the city’s total revenue.
  • Using Digital Technology for a Green and Just Recovery in Cities: To move towards a systems approach, this report recommends that city leaders should start by asking, “What are the most pressing unmet needs and challenges in cities” that technology can improve, rather than, “What can we do with digital technologies?”. A 10-step action plan and 31 case studies showcase best practices and innovative digital solutions that have already been applied in 28 cities worldwide.
    • For example, ModeliScale is an energy network digital twin that allows simulation of the future energy grid. The model covers multiple inputs and outputs, including buildings, solar panels, electric vehicles and storage. This realistic view of a city’s energy needs enables better planning for investment, operations and maintenance.
  • Accelerating Urban Inclusion for a Just Recovery: Equity and inclusion are at the heart of a systems approach to every aspect of recovery and transformation. The report provides a 10-step action plan for urban inclusion to enable city leaders to create more inclusive spatial, digital, social/institutional and economic realms.
    • For example, São Paulo, Brazil, has successfully introduced an instrument called “Outorga Onerosa”, which offers property owners a density bonus to increase the maximum allowable development on a site in exchange for either direct funds or in-kind support for specified public policy goals.
  • Delivering Climate-Resilient Cities Using a Systems Approach: This report finds that cities need to engage with relevant stakeholders from government, business, academia and civil society that interact with the urban value chain. The report provides a five-step action plan to guide cities in adopting a systems approach to climate-resilient urban infrastructure delivery.
    • For example, Mexico City is leading the way in Latin America by financing green infrastructure with social impact bonds. The success of these bonds is based in part on certification by internationally independent experts who also periodically collect and publish data on performance indicators.

Together the four reports provide a roadmap for cities to become more equitable and resilient to the shocks and stressed caused by global conflict, climate change, and rapidly changing technologies.

As the GFC co-chairs Carlo Ratti and Maimunah Mohd Sharif point out, preparedness on one front often has unexpected benefits elsewhere. In the Forward to the climate preparedness report, the co-chairs write, “Systems approaches are complex – more connections lead to more complications – yet the successes of cities such as Melbourne, Fukuoka and Helsinki demonstrate that extraordinary rewards can be attained, especially if siloed thinking is dismantled. The solution to a transport query might lie in housing; the unanticipated positive impact of a new park might be felt in a nearby water treatment plant. By pursuing a systems approach, we can bring fresh ideas to fields as diverse as housing, energy, mobility, public and green spaces, water treatment, stormwater management, waste management and many others.”

The Global Future Councils serve as a brain trust for leaders from government, business, and civil society, and support the Forum’s mission by bringing together experts bound by a shared mission to discuss the most critical issues, generate insights and analysis, and collaborate in shaping agendas.

Oxford climate experts call for action head of COP26

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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In the run-up to Glasgow, 10 leading Oxford climate researchers including Professors Myles Allen, Lavanya Rajamani and Nathalie Seddon, have been asked to record their concerns and hopes for the November conference.

The first of these new videos featuring the well-known climate attribution expert, Dr Friederike Otto, predicts that heat waves have become 100 times more likely in some places because of climate change.

She says in the video: ‘We know how much greenhouse gas is in the atmosphere… Climate change is a real game changer when it comes to heat waves.’

Fredi, as she is widely known, is the co-lead of World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international effort to analyse and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events.

Working at the forefront of cutting-edge climate science, in her message, Dr Otto adds: ‘In the last five years, we have developed the tools and understanding of how climate change affects us.’

Fredi’s COP26 ask is: I hope this evidence is used really to up the game on adaptation and adaptation finance.

In later videos, leading Oxford researchers say that, with investment in new technologies and commitment to promises, climate change can be mitigated – if policymakers set the agenda.

Derwent fm takes positive action for World Environment Day

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By Derwent fm

Derwent fm are proud to announce the bold steps we are taking on climate action by signing up to The Climate Group’s business initiative on efficient energy (EP100).

Derwent are joining the EP100 project through the energy management pathway. We have committed to reduce our energy consumption by 40% through our energy management system by 2050. This is based on our 2019/20 baseline year.

Derwent fm are one of the first facilities management companies to sign up to EP100. Joining this initiative is a major step towards helping us deliver our strategy and achieve our goals.

Janice Boucher, MD, Derwent fm, said: “Following our implementation of an energy management system and accreditation to ISO 50001, we wish to join other energy smart companies with a commitment to accelerate improvements in climate change. We are passionate about exploring energy efficient technologies and driving cultural change to reduce emissions, costs and combat climate change.”

Positive action on World Environment Day

Big business seeks to assert clean energy needs

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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A group described as featuring the world’s most influential companies says it’s actively engaging with policy makers and utilities to accelerate the transition to renewable energy – but it is calling on governments to remove the remaining barriers.

Going 100% renewable: how companies are demanding a faster market response is the 2019 RE100 Progress and Insights Annual Report from international non-profit The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. It tracks the progress of more than 200 member companies toward 100% renewable electricity.

The report reveals that although members are increasingly opting for cost-effective sourcing methods that directly bring additional renewable energy capacity online, unfavourable policy and market structures are inflating prices and making it harder to switch in places such as China and Russia.

The good news is that half of members (49%) are planning to partner with and influence stakeholders (such as governments and energy companies) by the end of next year, to help create markets for renewables. Such efforts are already bringing about policy changes in the Republic of Korea and the Taiwanese market, where to date access has been difficult.

This week policy makers are gathering at the UN Climate Change conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain, to discuss how to bring ambition in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Analysis released last week by the UN Environment Programme showed on current unconditional pledges, the world is heading for a dangerous temperature rise of 3.2˚C.

Helen Clarkson, CEO, The Climate Group, said: “At a time when UN research has said countries are underdelivering on climate action, leading businesses are stepping into the void left by national governments and accelerating the clean energy transition.

“With ten years left to halve greenhouse gas emissions, it is vital that governments respond faster to rising demand for renewable energy. Without decisive action, countries and the energy sector risk losing out on billions of US dollars in investment from RE100 companies.”

Paul Simpson, CEO, CDP, said: “Corporate demand for renewable power is rapidly growing as the world moves to address the climate emergency. Encouragingly, we see renewable energy increasingly becoming a matter of business competitiveness in numerous markets around the world.

“Many companies are now making the shift because it makes business sense – in part due to changing expectations from their key stakeholders – be that investors, customers or employees. Now is the time to meet the demand and speed up the clean energy transition”.

Seven critical areas for energy sector transformation revealed

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A new report has mapped seven critical areas for energy sector transformation and outlines a path that world leaders and companies involved in the energy sector should consider to mitigate the looming climate crisis in the next decade.

The by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) report, ‘Seven Challenges for Energy Transformation,’ was launched during three connected international events in Delhi, Beijing and New York entitled ‘EMERGE’ that brought together senior energy stakeholders to discuss issues faced within the energy sector.

The report frames RMI’s view on the most critical areas for collective action in the next three to five years that will keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

It identifies tipping points for rapid change that can be leveraged across investment, breakthrough policies, cross-sectoral partnerships and more. It calls for decisive actions on the part of citizens, corporations, philanthropic institutions, subnational leaders, regulators and policymakers to work together in new ways that leapfrog outdated boundaries and scale new and existing technologies.

“Working together, public and private institutions can harness market forces to dramatically accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies,” said Richard Kauffman, chair of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. “I’m proud New York is showing how these partnerships are making good progress towards our climate goals.”

The events serve as a starting point for leading energy sector thinkers and catalysts across India, China and the U.S. to explore the seven challenges and develop innovative, market-led ideas that will transform global energy use. Guided by the framework of the report, senior leaders from the public, private and philanthropic sectors will identify the highest leverage points to massively scale zero-carbon solutions together.

This ongoing work — part of a multiyear effort spearheaded by RMI — is being undertaken via a series of global labs for stakeholders to forge powerful, cross-sector connections and drive exponential impact.

“The time for action is now,” said Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of RMI. “The window of opportunity to avoid the most severe consequences is closing quickly. This report, and our efforts to mobilise the world’s top leaders to solve it together, is a critical first step to bring about urgently needed change.”

To download the report, visit https://rmi.org/seven-challenges-report.

GUEST BLOG: Why the new energy generation should not focus on the past

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By Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO, Azuri Technologies

The saying goes, the best way to predict tomorrow’s weather is to assume it will be the same as today. A lot of the time it will be. But this approach gives you no insight into what the future will bring and fails horribly when disruptive change is around the corner and people are left unprepared. That’s why weather forecasts were invented.

Similarly, in the energy sector it’s all too easy to look to traditional markets today for tomorrow’s energy solutions. But in doing so we are in danger of not letting go of the past and failing to be properly prepared for the future. Two hundred years of electricity history and infrastructure makes it difficult for alternative approaches to compete with what is already there.

Instead we must look at places where the established order does not exist, where innovative approaches compete on their own merits and where the future is able to shine through. Look at renewable energy. In the mainstream, there are people with solar panels on their roofs, there are solar farms, wind farms and hydro power, but the renewable energygenerated by these generally goes back into the grid.

To see the true value of renewable energy, look to where the grid does not exist. In sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people, that’s well over half the population of the continent, have no access to the grid. Here households are increasingly using solar power as their first step to getting energy access. Solar and batteries have many advantages. For one, the cost of connecting to the grid, on average, is about $2,000, whereas a basic solar home system can be purchased for as little as $50. These solar systems may not have the capacity of the grid, but they do deliver something the grid cannot in Africa: clean and reliable power that can be managed by the customer themselves.

Learning to innovate

The past can provide some valuable insights, but these must be applied with new technologies and perspectives. Many households in Africa without any electricity spend around 50 cents per day on fuel for lighting and to get someone to charge their mobile phones. In 2012, companies started offering small solar home systems on a rent-to-buy basis (PayGo). At that time, 50 cents per day would buy you a single small light and some phone charging. Dial forwards to 2019 and the same money will get you a home lighting system with 4 LED lights, phone charging, rechargeable radio and torch. For $1 a day you get a 24-inch smart TV with 60 channels of satellite content.

The cost of solar is coming down at a rate of around 15% annually. Similarly, the cost of batteries is falling rapidly, driven by the demands of the electric car industry, especially in China. If we can go from powering a small light to providing basic household electricity in 7 years, imagine what will be possible in another decade. The same money will likely get you about 4 times the power of today’s systems; enough power to drive a TV, fridge, fan, laptop, lights, phone charging and internet access. Couple that with gas for cooking (and heating if necessary) and you have pretty much covered the household needs for many homes.

A leapfrog generation

The cost of accessing the grid is not reducing. If the cost of connecting to the grid is unaffordable, it may well simply become redundant in the future. After all, standalone power gives you what you need at an affordable price.

At a time when the world’s leaders are meeting regularly to look at the future of the climate, it is good to reflect on global trends in sectors which can have a direct impact. While predicting the climate from historical information remains very difficult because of the complexity of global interactions, looking at the trends in the cost of solar and batteries is much simpler.

These trends tell us that new technology and new ways of energy generation will overtake conventional ways very soon.

In many parts of Africa, it already has. Look at the millions of off-grid households that have already found the cheapest source of electricity that generates no carbon whatever. Of course, there is still some carbon footprint from the equipment’s manufacture, but this is reducing all the time. The gap between what these systems can power compared to normal household use of the grid is rapidly reducing to zero.

On a continent with the highest annual population growth on the planet at about 3%, that’s adding the equivalent of nearly half the population of the UK every year, it’s encouraging to see millions of households skipping the fossil fuel generation and jumping directly into clean electricity and a digital world powered by the sun.

About The Author:- 

Simon leads the team at Azuri Technologies, bringing affordable clean energy to rural off-grid households in Africa. He has 25 years global experience in building rapid-growth, technology-based businesses, including 7 years at Symbian, the phone OS maker, where he was a member of the Leadership Team and VP Global Marketing. Simon also founded Myriad Solutions Ltd and was named a Global Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Simon was formerly an Industrial Fellow at the London based Royal Society and Research Fellow at Cambridge University in the UK. Since Azuri Technologies was launched in 2012, nearly a million people have benefited from clean, reliable energy in rural Africa.  

Government told to be ‘ambitious’ on UK’s emissions goals

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The UK can end its contribution to global warming within 30 years by setting an ambitious new target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said.

Ten years after the Climate Change Act became law, the Committee says now is the right moment to set a more ambitious goal – it asserts that achieving a ‘net-zero’ target by the middle of the century is in line with the UK’s commitment under the Paris Agreement; the pact which the UK and the rest of the world signed in 2015 to curb dramatically the polluting gases that cause climate change.

Scotland has greater potential to remove pollution from its economy than the UK overall, and can credibly adopt a more ambitious target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 2045.

Wales has slightly lower opportunities than the UK as a whole, and should adopt a target for a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

The CCC says now is a crucial time in the global effort to tackle climate change. Global average temperature has already risen by 1°C from pre-industrial levels, driving changes in our climate that are apparent increasingly. In the last ten years, pledges to reduce emissions by the countries of the world have reduced the forecast of global warming from above 4°C by the end of the century to around 3°C.  Net-zero in the UK would lead the global effort to further limit the rise to 1.5°C.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emphasised the vital importance of limiting further warming to as low a level as possible and the need for deep and rapid emissions reductions in order to do so.

The CCC’s recommended targets, which cover all sectors of the UK, Scottish and Welsh economies, are achievable with known technologies, alongside improvements in people’s lives, and should be put into law as soon as possible, the Committee says.

Falls in cost for some of the key zero-carbon technologies mean that achieving net-zero is now possible within the economic cost that Parliament originally accepted when it passed the Climate Change Act in 2008.

The Committee’s report, requested by the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments in light of the Paris Agreement and the IPCC’s Special Report in 2018, finds that:

  • The foundations are in place throughout the UK and the policies required to deliver key pillars of a net-zero economy are already active or in development. These include: a supply of low-carbon electricity (which will need to quadruple by 2050), efficient buildings and low-carbon heating (required throughout the UK’s building stock), electric vehicles (which should be the only option from 2035 or earlier), developing carbon capture and storage technology and low-carbon hydrogen (which are a necessity not an option), stopping biodegradable waste going to landfill, phasing-out potent fluorinated gases, increasing tree planting, and measures to reduce emissions on farms. However, these policies must be urgently strengthened and must deliver tangible emissions reductions – current policy is not enough even for existing targets.
  • Policies will have to ramp up significantly for a ‘net-zero’ emissions target to be credible, given that most sectors of the economy will need to cut their emissions to zero by 2050. The Committee’s conclusion that the UK can achieve a net-zero GHG target by 2050 and at acceptable cost is entirely contingent on the introduction without delay of clear, stable and well-designed policies across the emitting sectors of the economy. Government must set the direction and provide the urgency. The public will need to be engaged if the transition is to succeed. Serious plans are needed to clean up the UK’s heating systems, to deliver the infrastructure for carbon capture and storage technology and to drive transformational change in how we use our land.
  • The overall costs of the transition to a net-zero economy are manageable but they must be fairly distributed. Rapid cost reductions in essential technologies such as offshore wind and batteries for electric vehicles mean that a net-zero greenhouse gas target can be met at an annual cost of up to 1-2% of GDP to 2050. However, the costs of the transition must be fair, and must be perceived as such by workers and energy bill payers. The Committee recommends that the Treasury reviews how the remaining costs of achieving net- zero can be managed in a fair way for consumers and businesses.

Lord Deben, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, said: “We can all see that the climate is changing and it needs a serious response. The great news is that it is not only possible for the UK to play its full part – we explain how in our new report – but it can be done within the cost envelope that Parliament has already accepted. The Government should accept the recommendations and set about making the changes needed to deliver them without delay.”

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