FEATURE GREENING GREAT BRITAIN
services. There are opportunities through offering flexibility services, especially if the local authority invests in renewable and sustainable energy generation like solar, wind and energy from waste. Battery storage is a real game changer, enabling renewable projects to contribute to grid balancing which can generate income.” Clean development is being driven both by
policy and the market, and this can be seen in the energy sector in the UK where there are opportunities for innovative renewable energy technologies such as on-shore and off-shore wind to displace legacy means of energy generation. Professor Gouldson said: “At the moment, over 25% of electricity in the UK comes from renewable sources – due to a combination of government policies and market forces. Sometimes the media and others make a big deal out of the supposed extra cost of this and the impact on energy bills, but they overlook the fact that much of our energy infrastructure needed updating anyway. If we have to make massive investments in new energy infrastructure, there are obvious benefits from doing so in a way that improves our energy security and offers wider societal and environmental benefits as well as future-proofing the energy network. “In the UK and globally, renewables have
become so competitive that they are displacing fossil fuels – especially coal and to some extent also gas – so there are some grounds for optimism. The big question is whether the rates of change we have seen can be sustained, and whether the forces are strong enough to deliver the rapid and deep transition that we need.”
16 SOCIETY NOW AUTUMN 2018
Hot weather across the UK during the 2018 summer may have been a source of pleasure for many, but it also highlighted how human behaviour is affecting the world’s climate.
Local action can have global impact in the bid
to tackle climate change as more people seek to shoulder the collective burden of transition to a low-carbon society. “In Leeds we have created the Leeds Climate Commission to bring together all of the public, private and third sector actors in the city to build our capacity – as a city – to step up and take advantage of clean development opportunities. The Commission acts as an independent voice to provide advice on implementing steps towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. Through this cross-sector collaboration, projects are emerging and investments are happening that help the city meet its climate reduction targets. Our broader agenda is to energise the city and show that there are new ways of tackling challenging agendas. There is a lot of interest in replicating the Commission in other cities and communities across the UK,” adds Professor Gouldson. Green Great Britain Week can demonstrate the progress made on climate action, not least by showing what can happen when we unite people, communities and businesses against climate change. n
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The ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) brings together some of the world’s leading researchers on climate change economics and policy, from many different disciplines. It was established in 2008.
The Centre is hosted jointly by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is chaired by Professor Lord Stern of Brentford.
The Centre’s mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous, innovative research.
Email
a.gouldson@leeds.ac.uk Web
www.cccep.ac.uk
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