Climate Essentials: Enabling Local Authorities to Reach Net Zero Through Technology and Collaboration #techUKDigitalPS
The Carbon Data Gap: A Barrier to Net Zero
Acknowledging the necessity of tackling the climate crisis is no longer the issue in UK society. According to a recent survey conducted by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), over 80% of UK respondents are concerned about climate change. This concern is reflected institutionally; 91% of local authorities in the UK have set net-zero targets in line with the UK Government's 2050 net-zero legislation. It is clear that most people want to be part of a just transition to a more sustainable society. The issue is that the UK’s decarbonisation is happening too slowly and there is a major lack of communication between industries and across sectors, causing inefficiencies in the action needed for a net-zero future.
Local authorities have a vital role to play when it comes to decarbonisation, with the potential to influence a third of local emissions. But currently, the public sector faces a huge challenge to realising this potential; there is not enough carbon data needed for the UK to meet its net-zero legislative commitments. Local authorities up and down the country have pledged to reach net zero, but to achieve this they need access to accurate emissions data encompassing their entire region. When barriers to implementing climate action are lowered by the public sector, regional climate strategies become more inclusive and business benefits are unlocked. Empowering business ecosystems in this way will play a pivotal role in helping entire regions reach net zero by 2050. Put simply: you can’t manage what you don’t measure. The public sector needs aggregated and anonymised organisational data, encompassing entire regions and ecosystems, that can be used to inform public policies to effectively target climate action. The two most vital components for this are technology and collaboration.
The Solution: Part 1 - Technology
The first crucial step for regional climate action is organisational carbon accounting. It’s not just large corporations that the public sector needs to focus on for decarbonising our economy: 36% of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 came from SMEs. That’s hardly surprising when you consider that 99.9% of UK businesses are small-to-medium sized. The small businesses that are well-known to us on our high streets, fall under the extensive responsibility of local authorities. While carbon accounting can be done manually by a dedicated sustainability professional, this is likely to be a tall order for small businesses, who often lack time, money and sustainability expertise. Utilising a data-driven software, provided through local authority programmes, enables organisations to more accurately and more easily track their carbon emissions.
The information gained from a scientifically-aligned carbon accounting tool is essential for informing an individual organisation’s carbon reduction strategy. This is imperative when thinking about how these individual organisations fall under local authorities’ net-zero targets. When working with small businesses, we've found that using Climate Essentials allows them to strategically and systematically tackle their climate risks and challenges, and differentiate their organisation from the norm. It also ensures that these small businesses’ strategies are aligned with regional targets set by local authorities.
The Solution: Part 2 - Collaboration
For regional reduction targets to be met, a more collaborative approach is necessary. To fill data gaps, we need a cross-sector and cross-regional approach that enables knowledge sharing and facilitates a standardised method of carbon accounting. By aggregating and anonymising regional carbon data, an accurate and trustworthy data pool can be generated to inform important decisions. With this data, local authorities can develop and implement net-zero strategies that will lead to tangible carbon reduction, mobilising the transition to a greener economy.
We are already seeing the huge potential of this approach, combining the power of technology and collaboration through regional net-zero support programmes aimed at local businesses. An example of this is work we’ve led on with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, where programme participants have pledged to reduce 570 tonnes of CO2e. This is proof that, by creating a circular carbon data ecosystem, collaboration and technology between government and industry are at the core of the fight against climate change.
This article was shared by Climate Essentials.
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