I have recently had the pleasure to discover a new field for a professional project: the UK’s strategy for delivering Net Zero greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by 2050. The government has recently delivered a crucial policy paper that sets the plan to achieve this target: The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.
Why do we need to reach Net Zero globally?
Very simply: Reaching “net zero” emissions globally would stop us warming the planet. This can be achieved through a combination of:
- Reducing our GHG emissions, for example by decarbonising electricity, but there will always be some residual emissions; and
- Negative contributions: taking the GHG from the atmosphere, for example through reforestation and the production of bio-energy with carbon capture and storage…
The Paris Agreement aims to keep the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius rise above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Each signatory country sets its own Nationally Determined Contributions towards achieving that global goal. By having ambitious goals, the UK can lead the efforts to cut emissions around the world, particularly during the COP26 negotiations in Glasgow next year.
Why is this Ten Point Plan so important?
The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution
“Building back better, supporting green jobs, and accelerating our path to net zero”
This paper sets out the industrial strategy of Boris Johnson’s government to “forge ahead with eradicating [the UK’s] contribution to climate change by 2050” and deliver a green recovery from Covid-19. It will influence green investments and regulations over the next decades, and is the roadmap that sets the ambitions and policies that will need to be implemented by the civil service.
Tackling Climate Change: An opportunity and a duty
Investing in decarbonisation is essential. For me, this is why:
- To decrease the impact on our lives:
We’re all significantly impacted by the warmer climate: more frequent and stronger catastrophic weather events (Hurricanes, droughts, heat waves…), higher sea level and warmer temperatures, leading notably to loss of life, human migration and a mass extinction event of fauna and flora. - To seize the economic opportunity:
The green strategy includes a significant investment in research, development and innovation to create, improve or make technologies economically viable. This should revitalise research, as well as the UK’s industrial backbone, with potential to export some of these innovative technologies.
Electrification, moving away from gas boilers in our homes, phasing out fossil fuel cars amongst many other measures will create resolutely forward looking new jobs and competencies.
The City of London should also benefit from the growth of Green finance, from funding low carbon projects to issuing Green bonds and creating ESG funds. - To decrease the impact on people in poorer and more vulnerable countries:
The humanitarian tragedy that might result from climate change should be a priority and has to be dealt with for its own sake.
It will mean that many people will need to migrate and leave areas where they can’t live anymore.
The richer countries and biggest GHG emitters must take the lead to:
- Think globally when investing and financing green technologies and infrastructure;
- Preserve and support populations that might see their livelihood affected by decarbonisation efforts, for example rewilding and reforestation; and
- Prepare a framework to deal with climate migration and refugees.
Even if some consider it insufficiently ambitious, the government’s plan is an important step for the UK to achieve its legal and ethical duty to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2050. Let’s seize the moment!
“Climate change is cruel. While it will be felt everywhere, its most crippling effects will be borne by the world’s most vulnerable. Unmitigated climate change will cause the number of people in need to grow exponentially — and humanitarian organizations are already unable to meet humanitarian needs. Climate risks can lead to development reversals and systemic breakdown, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected states, which are currently most neglected by climate action” Catherine-Lune Grayson, the ICRC’s expert on climate change.
