A Climate Compatible Industrial Strategy
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Environment, Education and Development
Abstract
The Industrial Strategy sets out the UK government's vision for a modern economy that works for everyone. It is centred on ten pillars to drive forward world leading, innovative products, such as low carbon energy technologies and advanced materials and manufacturing sectors. The pillars include developing the right skills base, creating a well-connected infrastructure and designing the right policies to bring together sectors and places. However, implementing the strategy will also have implications for the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) the UK will emit.
The UK is committed to reducing GHGs through its international climate commitments. These are more ambitious than any previous global agreements. Therefore the UK needs to find a way to honour these while creating a vibrant economy. My fellowship will help understand how to embed climate change across all pillars of the Industrial Strategy to capitalise on the UK's world leading, low carbon, strengths.
It is well recognised that energy plays a big part in climate change, but all aspects of our daily life can also have consequences on the climate. For example, whenever we build a road or a factory using steel and cement, emissions are generated to make these. My analysis will measure all these emissions and look for opportunities to reduce these, for example by designing products with less material inputs. This is a unique way to look at the full range of mitigation options beyond simply how energy is supplied.
GHG emissions are mainly driven by the energy supply (with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind emitting very little GHGs), the efficiency of energy used and the overall demand for energy. While low carbon technologies (i.e. solar and wind) will reduce emissions, the physical demands from creating new sectors and infrastructures to improve the UK's competitiveness might increase emissions. My project will show how all these competing objectives can be balanced together to improve the competitiveness of UK industry while at the same time helping achieve its ambitious climate targets.
Climate models are used to predict how the climate responds to the generation of GHG emissions and our understanding of this is constantly improving. I will use a state-of-the-art climate model to measure how much GHGs the world has left to emit to stay within its climate target. I will then use different methods to allocate the UK a fair share of the global emissions we have left. By understanding how carbon intensity, efficiency improvements and demand for sectors in the UK have influenced emissions levels in the past, I will then be able to show how developments through the Industrial Strategy will drive UK emissions going forward.
I will engage with industries, who are responsible for implementing the strategy, to think about how they could embed climate commitments into their business practices and what they would need in terms of skills, infrastructure and investments to produce competitive, low carbon, products. I will talk to policy makers designing the strategy to think about how they could set policies to promote low carbon developments in these industries. This is an exciting project that brings together climate science, government policy and private companies to ensure we can tackle climate change while building a resilient, sustainable and competitive future for UK industry.
The UK is committed to reducing GHGs through its international climate commitments. These are more ambitious than any previous global agreements. Therefore the UK needs to find a way to honour these while creating a vibrant economy. My fellowship will help understand how to embed climate change across all pillars of the Industrial Strategy to capitalise on the UK's world leading, low carbon, strengths.
It is well recognised that energy plays a big part in climate change, but all aspects of our daily life can also have consequences on the climate. For example, whenever we build a road or a factory using steel and cement, emissions are generated to make these. My analysis will measure all these emissions and look for opportunities to reduce these, for example by designing products with less material inputs. This is a unique way to look at the full range of mitigation options beyond simply how energy is supplied.
GHG emissions are mainly driven by the energy supply (with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind emitting very little GHGs), the efficiency of energy used and the overall demand for energy. While low carbon technologies (i.e. solar and wind) will reduce emissions, the physical demands from creating new sectors and infrastructures to improve the UK's competitiveness might increase emissions. My project will show how all these competing objectives can be balanced together to improve the competitiveness of UK industry while at the same time helping achieve its ambitious climate targets.
Climate models are used to predict how the climate responds to the generation of GHG emissions and our understanding of this is constantly improving. I will use a state-of-the-art climate model to measure how much GHGs the world has left to emit to stay within its climate target. I will then use different methods to allocate the UK a fair share of the global emissions we have left. By understanding how carbon intensity, efficiency improvements and demand for sectors in the UK have influenced emissions levels in the past, I will then be able to show how developments through the Industrial Strategy will drive UK emissions going forward.
I will engage with industries, who are responsible for implementing the strategy, to think about how they could embed climate commitments into their business practices and what they would need in terms of skills, infrastructure and investments to produce competitive, low carbon, products. I will talk to policy makers designing the strategy to think about how they could set policies to promote low carbon developments in these industries. This is an exciting project that brings together climate science, government policy and private companies to ensure we can tackle climate change while building a resilient, sustainable and competitive future for UK industry.
People |
ORCID iD |
KATE SCOTT (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Barrett J
(2022)
Energy demand reduction options for meeting national zero-emission targets in the United Kingdom
in Nature Energy
Barrett John
(2021)
Resource efficiency scenarios for the UK: A technical report
Barrett John
(2021)
The role of energy demand reduction to achieve net-zero in the UK
Cherry C
(2018)
Public acceptance of resource-efficiency strategies to mitigate climate change
in Nature Climate Change
Holland RA
(2019)
The influence of the global electric power system on terrestrial biodiversity.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Scott K
(2018)
Bridging the climate mitigation gap with economy-wide material productivity
in Journal of Industrial Ecology
Scott K
(2022)
Demand vs supply-side approaches to mitigation: What final energy demand assumptions are made to meet 1.5 and 2 °C targets?
in Global Environmental Change
Spaiser V
(2018)
Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions in the sustainable development Goals Agenda
in International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology
Description | There is often a misconception that tackling climate change is limited to strategies that directly conserve energy use only by increasing the efficiency of our homes, cars or products. But how products (e.g. clothes, packaging, food, electronics, buildings and vehicles) are made and consumed also has an impact on emissions. My analysis shows that somewhat conservative changes in these areas, so far overlooked by government climate policy, could make a major contribution to meeting climate targets. My (collaborative) analysis shows that people would change their consumption habits to help the climate - even if this would have implications for their personal lives and shopping habits. This could entail using more sustainable packaging for products, sharing tools and other rarely-used products within communities, leasing products like washing machines instead of owning them, and getting electronic devices repaired rather than replacing them. Policies designed alongside public engagement can offer more productive business models that improve the circularity of resources, can cut employment and save people money. My research also identified much greater potential to focus on energy demand (reduction) in large global assessments that try to show how we can reach net zero emissions targets. This has potential health and equality co-benefits and can should be used to relieve pressure on high emissions savings from technologies that capture and store carbon from the atmosphere that are in their early stages of development (not the deployment of renewable energy which should continue at pace). |
Exploitation Route | These findings are already being taken forward in national policy documents including Defra's Resources and Waste Policy and the Committee on Climate Change's advice to government on the 6th carbon budget (as evidenced in influencing policy section). They are also forming a basis for designing metrics to measure progress in resource efficiency in industry in collaboration with the CCC. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Construction Creative Economy Electronics Energy Environment Retail |
Description | Key outcomes from the fellowship are being used to shape national government policies on resource use and climate policies. I contributed analysis to support the industry pathway of the Committee on Climate Change's (CCC) report to government on setting the UK's sixth carbon budget. There is growing interest by government departments (Defra and BEIS) and third sector organisations on circularity strategies which reduce resource use to be part of UK climate policies. The analysis has been cited in Defra's (the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Resources and Waste Strategy, the CCC's Net Zero report to government, and been presented to the All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group chaired by Caroline Lucas (MP), outlined in more detail in the 'Influence on Policy, Practice, Patients and the Public' section. The overall aim is to bridge government departments working separately on resource use and climate policies to identify additional and much needed mitigation options, which have public and industry support. I transferred the fellowship from Leeds to Manchester University 10 months in and this narrative covers the transition. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Energy,Environment |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Citation in Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Impact | The research has identified additional policies to meet net zero targets that is now informing an area of policy in BEIS and Defra. |
Description | Citation in Resources and Waste Strategy |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Impact | Actions aligned with our research findings have been taken on board in Defra's Resources and Waste Strategy, including: - Embedding the concept of extended producer responsibility in product streams beyond packaging - definitely electronics, vehicles and batteries, and possibly also streams like textiles, mattresses, and furniture, as well as some materials in the construction and demolition sector; - "To support the replacement of products with services", and promote resource efficient business models to extend product life, including product-service systems, hire and leasing and product life extension; - The document promises to 'develop a model for realising resource efficiency savings, working with businesses through "resource efficiency clusters"', which will be run by local authorities, LEPs or industry-led sectoral businesses, which we propose in our analysis; - A commitment to continue moving away from a focus on waste towards a focus on resources, with the explicit aim of helping "businesses make better decisions, for example by considering relative carbon emissions from reuse rather than disposal of a product" |
URL | https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7659... |
Description | Citation in the Resources and Waste Strategy |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Impact | Outcomes in Defra's Resources and waste Strategy aligned with recommendations from the analysis, for example: - The recommendations on promoting reuse, repair and remanufacture are very much in line with the research, including exploring the roles that guarantees and warranties can play and to promote extended product lifetimes. - Our report was also quoted in the evidence annex that underpins the strategy, including in the introduction: "There is emerging evidence that improving resource efficiency is popular with the public. CIE-MAP and Green Alliance (2018) found most people see the need to shift towards a society that uses resources more efficiently. The study also found 60% were supportive of a 'drastic shift' towards a resource efficient society even if that changed the way they live. People tended to favour approaches that were carried out by others (e.g. redesigning packaging) or were not too restrictive (e.g. a collaborative economy)." |
URL | https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7659... |
Description | Contribution to Committee on Climate Change's advice to government on 6th carbon budget |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Description | Provided analysis to The Sixth Carbon Budget advice report |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
URL | https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/ |
Description | Blog on local indsutrial strategies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Wrote a policy-focused blog with support from Policy@Manchester on "Local Industrial Strategies can capitalise on gaps in UK climate and resource policies". The purpose was to outline some policy recommendations to start a dialogue with region's local industrial strategies around resource efficiency measures, and not just low carbon energy. Policy@Manchester have hired an intern to engage with regional thinking about their local strategies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/energy_environment/2019/01/local-industrial-strategies-can-capit... |
Description | Contributing analysis to the Committee on Climate Change's advice to government |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Working with the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to develop their Industry Pathway to inform national government on a net zero GHG emissions target. This will form a section of the CCC's report to government due in April 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited expert at Delivering Net Zero deliberative workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | I was one of 40 academic experts invited to participate in a deliberative workshop with the aim to ensure that the research funded by the UKRI Energy and Decarbonisation Programmes informs and guides the responses of UK decision makers to climate change. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.deliveringnetzero.org/ |
Description | Invited speaker in parliament |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Invited to present and sit on an expert panel at an All-party Parliamentary Climate Change Group event to discuss the challenges the UK faces in achieving more ambitious decarbonisation targets, chaired by Caroline Lucas (MP), and attended by Ed Milliband (MP) and industry representatives. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/appccg/events/where-next-uks-long-range-climate-targets |
Description | Policy report |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Wrote a policy report with Green Alliance, a policy think tank regularly engaging and shaping national environmental policies, on public perceptions of alternative resource efficiency futures. The outcome is to inform the design of policies that achieve both material and emissions savings alongside public support, and therefore are more likely to be effective. The report got coverage in the HuffPost, REB MArket Intelligence, Recycling and Waste World, Recycling International, Packaging Gateway, and World Aerosols; we held an expert panel discussion in London with policy makers, industry and academix experts; and the report was cited in Defra's Resources and Waste Strategy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.green-alliance.org.uk/by_popular_demand.php |
Description | Policy report on the contribution of resource efficiency to meeting UK climate targets |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Wrote a policy report with Green Alliance, a think tank engaging and shaping national environmental policies, "Less in, more out: using resource efficiency to cut carbon and benefit the economy". The purpose was to provide evidence to BEIS and Defra on the contribution of resource efficiency to meeting climate targets. As a result we held a high level policy workshop with BEIS and DEFRA officials and scientific advisers in London; the report and academic paper have been cited in Defra's Resources and Waste Strategy; and I have provided some additional analysis to the Committee on Climate Change's evidence base for a net zero emissions target for the UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.green-alliance.org.uk/less_in_more_out.php |
Description | Policy workshops |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Attending monthly resource efficiency workshops with the Committee on Climate Change, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to discuss resource efficiency policy and monitoring in indsutry. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | University of Leeds blog |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Wrote a collaborative blog on "How cities have climate action all wrong" for a general audience to highlight how the way we account for GHG emissions in cities (from heating and personal transport) ignores a large number of actions that can be taken at the city level, by policy makers and city resident (e.g. changing diets and reducing food waste). it was published by the University of Leeds media team and got 326 claps so far, showing that at least this number of people engaged with the post. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://medium.com/university-of-leeds/how-cities-have-climate-action-all-wrong-3f300da06dc0 |