FEATURE GREENING GREAT BRITAIN
Brits to engage in their favourite conversational topic: discussing the weather. Human behaviour is affecting the world’s climate in an unprecedented manner and this is cause for concern. The Met Office stated that atmospheric greenhouse gases reached their highest levels in the instrumental record in 2017, with average CO2 concentrations reaching a record high of 405ppm (parts per million). According to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in the US, Arctic sea ice reached a record low maximum extent in 2017 in a 38-year satellite record period. The picture offered by these statistics and others is bleak and sometimes climate change is presented as insurmountable. As climate change continues to encroach
on people’s lives though, initiatives are being undertaken at national and local levels to tackle the issue.
“ Renewables have become
so competitive that they are displacing fossil fuels
Greg Clark MP, Business Secretary said:
“Looking to the future, a combination of falling costs and global commitments are creating new opportunities for British businesses to lead the world in the development, manufacture and application of low-carbon technologies. “Our Clean Growth Grand Challenge is a commitment from government to work with industry to make this happen. There is a big business opportunity here, and we will be working with business to highlight these opportunities during the first ever annual Green Great Britain Week, starting on 15th October.” Clean growth seeks to transition to a low-
”
carbon society while growing national income: it aims to combine increasing productivity along with improvements and protections for the environment. Professor Andy Gouldson of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, hosted jointly by the University of Leeds and London School of Economics, has worked extensively on the opportunities for – and critically also the limits and contradictions of – clean and green growth.
14 SOCIETY NOW AUTUMN 2018
Greening Great Britain I
T HAS BEEN AN unrelenting summer with soaring temperatures around the world, parched fields across the country revealing historical sites and ample opportunity for
The UK wants to continue on a path of decarbonisation through its new clean growth strategy – and this desire is embodied in the inaugural Green Great Britain Week. What can be done to tackle climate change across all levels of society? By James Dixon
His work has focused especially on the economics of low-carbon cities and communities, and he is currently working on the different ways of financing the low-carbon transition. He said: “Green Great Britain Week is there to
celebrate the opportunities available in the green sector. In our contribution to it, we’re interested in the local opportunities – our research shows that there’s a massive opportunity for low-carbon or climate-resilient development in cities and communities across the UK. As an example, the Leeds City Region could save over £1 billion a year in energy bills if it invested in all available profitable energy efficiency and low-carbon options. This would create nearly 15,000 years of employment and emissions would fall by nearly a quarter, over and above what is currently expected.” The UK Government has allocated £2.5 billion
of investment in low-carbon innovation between 2015-2021 and committed to reducing greenhouse emissions by at least 80% of a 1990 baseline by 2050 as part of the Climate Change Act. It cannot tackle climate change alone though. “The challenge is that clean development can require a lot of investment in the short term even if it would be more productive economically, and socially and environmentally in the medium to long term. Stimulating that investment is a major challenge. This can mean getting the big pension funds and institutional investors involved, but the really exciting opportunities are for communities to invest in their own area. For example, residents of the Leeds City Region have an estimated £5 billion saved in ISAs. We could offer them an opportunity to invest in clean development in their region and get comparable returns whilst also creating jobs, value and social benefits whilst also decarbonising the regional economy. This has started to happen in Leeds and it could be transformative.” Initiatives such as UK100 have been set up to
connect local stakeholders in a bid to transition to 100% clean energy by 2050. UK100 brings together local government leaders with businesses and national government to implement clean energy transition plans that are cost-effective. Polly Billington, Director of UK100, said: “Local authorities are really feeling the squeeze, with budgets increasingly tight. They have no statutory responsibility around energy so if they are going to embark on energy initiatives, the projects have to at least wash their own face, and preferably generate income that can be deployed elsewhere to sustain
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