Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged to learn from the success of the London Olympics and create a new Climate Delivery Authority to ensure the UK meets its 2050 net zero carbon target. The initiative has been proposed in a letter to the British prime minister by a Cambridge University-led research programme, itself funded by the government. The proposed delivery authority should be modelled along the lines of the one that successfully handled the 2012 London Olympic Games, says the letter. Julian Allwood, a Cambridge professor of Engineering and the Environment who leads the research team known as UK FIRES, told Johnson that the pandemic lockdown should hasten new thinking about how to deal with the even greater threat posed by global warming.
Recharge News 20th Oct 2020 read more »
The UK’s departure from the EU provides an opportunity to establish a “much more” ambitious climate target for 2030 that aligns with its longer-term statutory goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, Conservative backbenchers have told the government. In a letter sent this morning to Business Secretary Alok Sharma, dozens of Tory MPs urged the government to submit a strengthened climate goal – or nationally determined contribution (NDC), in the UN jargon – that follows the forthcoming recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which is in December due to unveil its advice for meeting the UK’s emissions goals for the 2033-37 period, also known as the sixth carbon budget. Signatories to the letter include former Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers, former First Secretary of State Damian Green, and former Under Secretary of State for BEIS Lord Duncan. The UK government, meanwhile – which has not updated its UN Paris Agreement climate pledges since adopting its 2050 net zero target last year – has said it plans to submit its enhanced, net zero-aligned NDC ahead of next year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow. And, in a bid to keep up pressure on the government to ensure the UK’s plans are as ambitious as possible, 42 MPs and Lords in the Conservative Environment Network have signed today’s letter arguing the UK has a responsibility as host of the forthcoming COP26 climate conference to establish a world-leading national climate plan that sets an example to other member states and raises collective international ambition.
Business Green 20th Oct 2020 read more »
The prime minister made a heroic effort to change the subject from coronavirus in his speech to the Conservative Party conference this month. He invited viewers – begged them, even – to raise their eyes to the end of the decade, by which time “offshore wind will be powering every home in the country”. It was a striking target, one of a series of sub-targets needed to get to the great goal of net zero carbon by the middle of the century. It allowed some typically Johnsonian rhetorical flourishes: “Far out in the deepest waters we will harvest the gusts.” But it is also good crude politics: everyone thinks green is good.
Independent 20th Oct 2020 read more »
The UK Government vowed last week to publish a “comprehensive” net-zero strategy ahead of COP26 in November 2021. But several glaring policy gaps remain. Here, edie rounds up the 8 major policy announcements the green economy is waiting for. 1. Energy White Paper; 2. Buildings Strategy; 3. Heat Strategy; 4. Transport road maps; 5. National Infrastructure Strategy; 6. Environment Bill; 7. Resource and Waste Strategy; 8. Post-Brexit Trade Deals.
Edie 20th Oct 2020 read more »