Henri Murison, Northern Powerhouse
Ged Heffernan, Fern Innovation
When it comes to the business case, it’s a question of, ‘why wouldn’t you?’
Both in government and in commerce, the view has been the UK wants cheap energy, and that’s what has driven the UK in the past. But now there is a change.
WWW
The point about decarbonisation is you can’t obsess about existing assets; we have lots of these; we have Springfields, we have other really important assets in the decarbonisation space. I would argue a lot of manufacturing assets in the supply chains of these industries are assets.
Having a very advanced aerospace industry is important because that’s one of the key areas that’s going to have to decarbonise. Being at the front of the innovation in terms of what’s happening in the future of aviation will position Lancashire at the front of a lot of other areas.
Ged Heffernan
People who were saying ‘we’re not interested’ are now saying, ‘we’ve got to’. As the cost of carbon rises and the cost of renewables reduces, there’s a crossover point. Right now, people are waking up to that and it is not just energy, it is recycling.
Points have been made about the unpredictability of wind and solar. A FTSE100 company has developed a tidal turbine in the UK, and we have 20 per cent of Europe’s resource of tidal energy. I can tell you for the next 100 years when the tide is going to flow, and in which direction. We have such a massive tidal resource here; it is a huge opportunity.
A framework is key and it is about transitioning the skills and capabilities we have in industries such as aerospace so they can contribute to green activities.
It is looking at skills; at technologies that we need to develop and promote; the suppliers and the supply chain to be able to ask, ‘Do we have holes in that?’
The change that we’re asking for is not going to happen if we don’t put infrastructure in place.
Henri Murison Prof Karl Williams, UCLan
There’s a paradigm shift within businesses about adopting the green agenda, and some of this is being driven by young people coming into the workplace.
They’re much more aware of the impact of climate change, the need to be more aware of carbon and this is pushing up through the company from the ground upwards.
Also, companies are becoming much more aware of their position within supply chains. If the people you’re supplying are striving for carbon neutrality, they’re going to start looking down their chain. And if you want to remain part of it, you’ve got to start demonstrating that you’re getting onboard.
One of the big challenges that companies have, apart from the cost, is that sometimes they simply lack knowledge. It’s looking at how you upskill the workforce and how you get the green agenda embedded within your company.
Prof Karl Williams
Providing funds to help companies to make that transition is key, because without that, you’ll always have the argument, ‘It costs too much money for us to do it, we can carry on as we are.’
We’ve got some very good universities. In terms of education and knowledge transfer, we’re in a unique position. The government should make use of this and enable businesses to engage more with higher education and colleges, so that they can upskill workers and start to move technology into their business.
Whether it’s in the direct energy sector, or in areas where other products and services are going to change dramatically because of decarbonisation, there is a huge industrial challenge. The Northern Powerhouse will not survive economically and will not thrive if it doesn’t play a role in the leadership of the transition to net zero, in terms of manufacturing.
We need a clear industrial agenda for energy in the North of England. We are going to achieve net zero by 2050; the challenge is, will we do that by building the things we’re talking about in the UK?
We need to think about the businesses and the innovations that the UK, and in particular the North of England, can provide to the world. We need to back those now, rather than wait for someone else to come and sell us a solution later.
We need to make this transition for the good of the country, for the good of the world, and it’s, ‘What role can Lancashire play?’.
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