19 Oct Collaboration across West London key in targeting net zero
Capital West London in partnership with WSP, brought voices from both public and private sector bodies together to discuss innovation and collaboration on the road to net zero in West London, at a round table on 16 September.
Participants:
• Matthew Adams, Head of Natural Resources & Climate Strategy, Harrow Council
• Nicole Chan, Senior ESG Manager, Mileway
• Jim Coleman, Head of Economics, WSP
• Liz Cowie, Assistant Director Strategy, Communications & Engagement, Barnet Council
• Amelia Grant, Better Futures Cleantech Manager & Head of Member Services, West London Business
• Ryan Jude, Programme Director, Green Finance Institute
• Wayne Stephenson, Director of Environment & Climate, London Borough of Hounslow
• Louise Wilson, Co-founder & Joint MD, Abundance Investment
Key areas of focus included how West London’s net zero action compares with the rest of the world, the challenges of reaching net zero and how the public and private sector can collaborate.
One opportunity that was discussed was the potential to retrofit vast amounts of local property.
Matthew Adams said: “West London has a lot of metro land with detached of semi-detached houses. There is opportunity there for retrofit and the housing is historically low-lying with good opportunities for things like solar, due to the roof space available.”
Ryan Jude added: “In an urban centre there are lots of buildings, and so lots of retrofitting opportunities. There’s also EV charging and district heating that can scale up and attract larger infrastructure financing, which is more appealing.”
Funding was raised as a major priority for West London and the means of attracting it, whether it be from the government or private investors, and even crowdfunding.
Jim Coleman commented on the potential of the freeports programme in unlocking innovative technology: “One of our big projects, at the moment, is supporting the government on the setup of the freeports programme, creating special economic zones within which there are tax incentives. They are geared towards attracting investment. Should we be making the case to government that
net zero is so important that it needs the same form of incentivization to draw in private investment, create the technologies, deploy them, and employ people.”
Wayne Stephenson added: “Thinking about our assets, it’s critical to look at that from a retrofit perspective, work also needs to be done to calculate then tangible and financial benefit of investing in green infrastructure and parks.”
Asked about the challenges of achieving net zero, the panel was keen to reframe the idea as less of a challenge and more of an opportunity; however, there was concern as to how easy it might be to implement change within communities and alter behaviours, and whether government incentives have a role to play in encouraging that change.
Liz Cowie said: “There are an awful lot of people that don’t have a lot of money. We are facing a world where we are all going to be confronted with a set of really hard choices and may well be asking residents to change their behaviours. That’s a really difficult conversation to have with people.”
All agreed that it was important for both the private and public sector to work together to achieve net zero in West London, but it was a question of how?
Local councils may largely be on board with the agenda, but their borrowing and spending is relatively limited, making progress slow, and showing how essential private and public partnerships are for the journey ahead. It was agreed that lobbying government for resources and/or funding would have a major role to play, and de-risking investments and looking to new technologies could provide long-term solutions.
Louise Wilson said: “Can partnerships like West London help de-risk some of the initiatives by taking away procurement rules for a certain proportion? Could some of the bigger businesses actually de-risk by providing skills or expertise or services at cost, or cost plus a small amount? It needs scale. If you can’t increase returns then you need to reduce risk, particularly from pension funds, but also with our concept of green bonds.”
You can read the full report here.