Climate change blog: the ADEPT Autumn Conference 2024
David Dale, Policy Officer, gives an overview of ADEPT's recent Autumn Conference, which took place in Bristol on 21st and 22nd November, with both climate and nature issues well represented in the plenary and workshop sessions.
Investment in nature recovery
The question: 'Are nature markets the silver bullet to investment in nature recovery?' was the topic of the second plenary session on day one of the conference. Chaired by Carolyn McKenzie (Chair, ADEPT Environment Board / Director of Environment at Surrey County Council), the speakers were Tony Juniper (Chair, Natural England), Emma Toovey (Chief Ecology Officer, Environment Bank), and Helen Avery (Director, Nature Programmes & GFI Hive, Green Finance Institute). In her introductory remarks Carolyn talked about how local authorities seeking to attract private investment into nature projects need a balanced team of skilled individuals with vision. That team should include ‘big hitters’ to lead and inspire, place teams to facilitate and drive, finance teams to support, and politicians to create the momentum and bring the public along.
Tony Juniper said that while Natural England estimates the funding gap for nature to be somewhere between £2bn-£5bn this did not all have to be new money. The trick will be to bend existing budgets for health, growth, and food and water security so that they deliver nature benefits too. An example is the way that farming subsidies have been repurposed post-Brexit to deliver environmental public goods. Private finance can be encouraged through legislation and regulation, as has happened with biodiversity net gain (BNG) and nutrient neutrality. Markets need standardisation and regulation to de-risk investment, with local authorities having an important role in convening and leading. Water companies also have an important role in using their assets creatively to improve nature and health.
Emma Toovey described how the Environment Bank is attracting private investment by selling BNG credits to developers in cases where on-site BNG cannot be fully delivered. £50m has already been invested to restore ecosystems on 29 sites, and £300m more is in the pipeline. Success depends on market predictability and stability, a transferrable model that can be scaled and used in different places, and the management of risk within a regulatory framework. Helen Avery explained that while nature markets can take some time to set up, once established they are an effective way of bringing in investment. Government can help by developing ‘nature positive pathways’ of long-term plans setting out nature targets for each sector of the economy. Local authorities can help by talking to businesses in their area in language that business understands, to help them identify the costs and risks of not protecting the natural environment that they operate within, and the opportunities to invest in it.
Clean, local energy
Delivering clean and locally generated energy was the focus for workshop one and was chaired by Sheryl French (Chair, ADEPT Energy & Clean Growth Working Group / Assistant Director at Cambridgeshire County Council). Panel members Freddie van der Linde and Siobhán Gibbons (Jacobs) and Kieran Highman (NESO) explored the importance of a Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP), its relationship to the proposed Regional Energy System Plan (RESP) and how together this can support the government’s new Mission Control for Clean Power 2030. This aims to accelerate the UK transition away from fossil fuel and towards clean and locally generated energy. This will also need to include the work undertaken on strategic spatial planning to support delivery of energy infrastructure to speed up grid connections.
Sheryl said that if local authorities don’t get involved in local energy planning then they won’t be able to influence the scale and location of development. Instead this will be dictated by energy grid capacity and availability. Energy development will be central to local growth plans, and it will be essential to involve local communities in the roll out of energy infrastructure. Freddie and Siobhán described what should be in a LAEP, identifying changes in a place’s energy system, engaging with large commercial users of energy. They urged local authorities to engage with government departments and agencies whenever possible via consultation processes. Kieran explained that Ofgem is consulting on RESPs including the number of regions and their boundaries. It is proposed that upper tier local authorities will sit on RESP Boards. Local authorities will also have a key role in heat network zoning, although in discussion questions were raised about the skills and capacity to do this, the need to identify local sources where heat will be produced or sourced, and the practical and financial challenges of retrofitting existing district heating scheme for social housing and converting them to new heat networks.
Workshop five examined place-based decarbonisation and was led by Mark Saunders (Colas), with input from a panel consisting of Andrew Spencer (Equans), Freddy Parker (Behavioural Insights Team), and Nicola Butterworth (Liverpool City Council). Mark drew on the results of a survey of local authorities in advance of the conference and on case studies from Dudley, Manchester, and Swaffham Prior in Cambridgeshire.
The survey results showed that local decarbonisation programmes were largely driven by the local authority rather than by public demand, but Nicola said that successful delivery depended on community engagement and support, so local authorities must invest in staff to talk to people generally and young people in particular. Freddy referred to the Climate Change Committee report which identified that 62% of the actions needed to achieve net zero depend on individual choices. This means that we need to understand our particular communities and tailor interventions accordingly. Andrew highlighted the effectiveness and greater social benefits of place-based decarbonisation and the need for more effective procurement and financial systems to enable this.
Following the panel discussion, attendees split into four workshop groups to discuss procurement, collaboration, finance and behaviour change. Colas will be using the output from these groups to identify the optimal route for developing and disseminating these topics further over the next year.
Valuable connections and idea sharing
As always, the ADEPT conference provided space and time for much needed conversation, debate and idea-sharing. President of ADEPT, Ann Carruthers charged all those attending with a mission to make at least one new connection and find a new idea for one of their top priorities. Delivering on ambitious net zero targets and mitigating the impacts of climate change are uppermost in the minds of many place directors, so the plenaries, workshops and discussions provided valuable takeaway for everyone present.
Further information
Author
- David Dale, ADEPT Policy Officer
