Net zero and consumption emissions - Pulling our weight
In the face of Brexit turmoil, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the great strides made by the global environmental movement. In recent years we have witnessed the advent of the Sunrise Movement, the escalation of Youth Climate Strikes and the mass civil disobedience of Extinction Rebellion.
What these movements hold in common is a demand for sweeping and drastic political action to address climate breakdown. In the case of the youth-led climate strikes and Sunrise Movement, this action is characterised as a ‘Green New Deal’ wherein the respective governments would invest heavily to rapidly transition their economies to net zero carbon in a socially just manner.
The concept of a UK ‘Green New Deal’ has been gaining momentum in the last year. Currently, there is a ‘Green New Deal’ bill (formally titled the ‘Decarbonisation and Economic Strategy Bill’) working its way through the House of Commons. In addition to this, there has been progress towards a ‘Labour Green New Deal’ as the party passed a policy motion to work “towards a path to net zero carbon emissions by 2030” at its recent conference.
At Oakdene Hollins we are interested in the detail of how these policy commitments plan to achieve the zero-carbon economy envisaged. As circular economy advocates, we were particularly impressed with the inclusion of the commitment to “measure and tackle consumption emissions, not just on UK soil” within labours policy motion and the policy objective to “reduce the carbon impact of consumer products” within the current ‘Green New Deal’ bill.
We support businesses actively moving towards more circular and resource efficient practices but are realistic about the cumulative impact of these actions. Generally, businesses act to reduce their carbon consumption by increasing their secondary raw material input, designing for circularity and improving the transparency of their supply chain emissions. From our vantage point we can see progress in these areas being made by a select few market leaders, but these transitions are not easy and will not alone be enough to enable the shift towards a truly carbon neutral economy.
It is our view that the state will have to play a key role in guiding this transition by educating consumers, incentivising innovative business practices, creating a coherent market for secondary materials and setting a clear policy direction in which investment in the required infrastructure is strategically justified.
Oakdene Hollins are encouraged by the political progress being made on environmental issues, highlighted in the Environment Bill released on Wednesday 16th September. Going forward we believe that all national carbon accounting should include off-shore consumption emissions, the government must support business to enable significant reduction of the carbon footprint of products, and environmental best practice needs to be shared cross-sectorally. This will start us on the path to making significant improvements in consumption emissions. Only if these actions are taken can the UK ensure that it shoulders its fair share of climate action.