Public Affairs
Environment news: 21st August

Greenhouse Public Affairs provides a weekly public affairs environment news round-up across sectors including energy, transport and the environment. Sign up to our public affairs weekly round-up here.

Environment & COP26

The government has set out how it will underpin key environmental commitments with legally binding targets under the Environment Bill. The government will introduce at least one long-term target in four priority areas, namely cleaner air, cleaner water, less waste and more biodiversity. These long-term targets will be supported by interim targets, with the government also reporting annually on our progress. Read more about the targets here.

New climate finance data reveals a reduction of 31 million tonnes of GHG emissions since 2011 as a result of UK intervention. In the last nine years, UK aid investment has provided 33 million people with improved access to clean energy including connections to off-grid renewable energy sources, installed 2000 MW of clean energy capacity, and leveraged £2.2 billion of private finance to fight climate change. Read more about the data here.

Energy

Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng has announced £10m in funding to help UK distilleries go green and cut emissions by switching to low carbon fuels. The move gives backing to distilleries across the UK to harness low-carbon hydrogen, biomass and repurposed waste to power their operations. The funding will also help prevent pollution equivalent to emissions from 100,000 cars from entering the atmosphere, helping the UK to reach its net-zero 2050 target. Read more about the announcement here.

The Crown Estate has awarded rights for Wales’s first ever floating offshore wind project. The Crown Estate has awarded seabed rights to developers Blue Gem Wind, for the proposed 96 MW Erebus floating wind demonstration project. Floating technologies, which are better suited to deeper waters than traditional ‘fixed’ foundations, are set to play a key part in the sustainable future of UK offshore wind, unlocking new areas of seabed. Read more about the announcement here.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published its response to the consultation on carbon capture, usage and storage business models. The response highlights potential carbon capture business models for industry, power, carbon dioxide transport and storage and low carbon hydrogen production. It also outlines the necessary action to enable carbon capture deployment in the 2020s. Read the outcome of the consultation here.

Jobs

The Resolution Foundation has found that green jobs can help workers move out of coronavirus-hit sectors. However its latest report suggests that the UK is ill-prepared to deliver large-scale retraining programmes. The report notes that jobs in ‘green sectors‘ have relatively low barriers to entry, and so are likely to help the types of workers most at risk of losing their jobs during this crisis. Read the full report here.

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