After watching Pope Francis’s funeral, as I’m quite new to the area, I decided to go for a wonder. I soon found myself looking at the towering fells and lush green valley surrounding St. Mary’s Church in Longsleddale.
Feeling a bit awestruck, I thought about the Pope’s remarkable legacy and some of his words came to mind: “The world is a delicate gift that we have received. Our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.”
Then another of his reflections popped into my head: “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
There’s nothing quite like a blast of truth to remind us of how badly we are managing the environment.
Stewards of the Earth (and all its mess)
“We are all stewards of the Earth, and we have a responsibility to safeguard and protect it for future generations.”
Pope Francis possessed a remarkable ability to combine compassion, honesty, and that rare quality—humour. He was also an exceptional leader in environmental issues. He consistently urged us to transform our relationship with the Earth and with one another—essentially asking us to stop acting like unruly tenants and start behaving as responsible stewards.
In his groundbreaking ecological encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015), published just ahead of the Paris Agreement, he addressed people of all faiths — and none — reminding everyone that the Earth is “our common home”.
Three simple words that evoke a familiar relationship with the natural world. Three simple words that make the Earth our own and future generations. He stressed that the Earth is not an object for exploitation, but a sacred gift meant to sustain all life. Crucially, he acknowledged the scientific consensus on climate change and how humans are causing climate change.
Another key theme in Laudato Si’ is the link between consumerism, overconsumption, and environmental degradation. He critiqued the “throwaway culture” that produces waste, inequality, and resource exploitation, and urged a shift towards a simpler lifestyle that prioritises the needs of both the planet and the poor.
He also introduced the insightful concept of integral ecology, which connects care for the environment, human dignity, and social justice. He argued that solutions must consider the entire interconnected web of life. An idea that closely aligns with Buddhist ecological thinking, where interdependence and compassion for all living beings are fundamental principles.
Reading beyond the theology, a punchy moral dilemma emerges: do we want to continue creating a mess, or do we wish to turn things around while we still have the chance?
Thank you, Pope Francis, for providing the world with the climate leadership we desperately needed—leadership based on the belief that another path is possible.
At the end of June 2015, in celebration of the encyclical, I was involved in OurVoices which collaborated on climate change with faiths in the run-up to the Paris Agreement.
On the hottest day imaginable, we covered St Peter’s Square in green leaves and soaring paper kites, calling for climate action. Pope Francis looked on and even called out our name in thanks.
OurVoices worked closely with the Church of England, the Vatican, on other religious and spiritual communities to give a powerful voice to the moral imperative of climate change. Our Voices work reached government leaders and citizens across the world.We did this with GreenFaith and with the Global Catholic Climate Movement – now the Laudato Si Movement.
There is a tangible link to green finance in all of this in that OurVoices was set up, via many conversations with Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC Executive Secretary at the time), by the late, great Tessa Tennant – the godmother of sustainable finance.
Many thanks to Skelsmergh, Selside and Longsleddale for posting this article in their June newsletter.
This post was written for Green Alliance and was published on Inside Track on 23/01/2025.
This post is by Ciara Shannon, founding director of the Green Finance Community Hub CIC and green finance lead at North West Net Zero Hub.
The Local Power Plan has the potential to transform the future of UK energy. But its true impact will depend on whether both large scale community energy projects and smaller projects get the support they need. Supporting large scale community projects could spark a new era for energy, if it’s given the scale and backing it needs.
Communities can’t compete with large companies
Communities face substantial barriers when competing with corporations to develop large scale renewable energy projects such as offshore wind. Businesses are better positioned to secure financing and access capital, while community groups face challenges in raising development funds, and lack financial and technical expertise.
Not only are they unable to compete, but community investors are also excluded from investing fully in the high return, early investment phases or larger projects. Instead, they’re often given options with lower yields in the later stages, such as investing in operational assets, which limits them from benefitting from the higher returns available in the development phase and constrains their role to partial ownership, undermining the transformative potential of community energy. It’s time to shift this paradigm.
While the government’s Local Power Plan’s proposed £600 million for local authorities and £400 million for community energy loans marks a significant step forward, these funds, when distributed, will fall short of supporting truly large scale community energy initiatives.
Project Collette is a new community opportunity
At the Green Finance Community Hub, we are incubating Project Collette, a proposed 1.2GW (80-100 wind turbine) offshore wind farm off Cumbria’s coast. This aims to be genuinely groundbreaking in how it is run, governed and financed, allowing communities and residents to benefit directly. Our Community Integrated Investment Model (CIIM) ensures communities can invest in renewable energy projects from the earliest, high return stages and combine public, private and community funding to create a balanced and inclusive financial ecosystem. It also will use guarantees and co-financing arrangements to mitigate the financial risks associated with early stage investments.
Public support for community owned projects is growing
Recent polling from Common Wealth highlights a promising shift in public opinion. According to their research, 62 per cent of respondents expressed support for community energy in their local area, versus 40 per cent who favoured privately owned renewable projects.
These numbers are similar to the community engagement we did for Project Collette in Cumbria in 2024 when 578 people responded to our survey and 64 per cent expressed support. The most cited benefits were job creation, skills training and discounted electricity. People were also asked if they would consider investing in Project Collette and 32 per cent, especially younger people, saying they would.
Shared ownership is successful in Denmark
One of the best known examples of a community owned offshore wind project is Middelgrunden Wind Farm in Denmark. This supplies four per cent of Copenhagen’s electricity and is co-owned by Danish people in a co-operative that owns 50 per cent of the wind farm. The other 50 per cent is owned by the Danish utility company HOFOR. A combination of community investment and supportive government policies made Middelgrunden possible. Community members receive annual dividends based on the wind farm’s performance, offering them a stable and long term source of income. The Local Power Plan could learn a lot about co-investment and partnership from this example.
The Local Power Plan is also a chance for local councils to be important players in the push for net zero. Councils such as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Cheshire West and Chester have already led the way with projects like solar farms, heat networks and energy efficiency retrofits.
Sea Lords of the West is a pioneering seabed leasing initiative
This year, alongside work on Project Collette, the Green Finance Community Hub is advancing the Sea Lords of the West proposal, a bold vision that calls for a percentage of the seabed and land owned by the Crown Estate to be dedicated to the community as a community lease. Under this model, local authorities and community groups would be empowered to act as ‘sea lords’ or landlords, leasing seabed to developers that commit to guaranteed community projects. This approach ensures long term revenue streams for local priorities, such as tackling fuel poverty and improving infrastructure, while giving the community a direct stake in the project, and the opportunity to participate in shaping the future of renewable energy in their region.
A precedent for this exists. The West Anglesey Demonstration Zone is a tidal stream energy initiative managed by the Morlais project. With the potential to generate up to 240MW of electricity, Morlais is the first tidal energy project on this scale to be led by a social enterprise through its partnership with Menter Môn. The project has already created investment opportunities and jobs and, with local ownership at its core, any profits generated will be reinvested into the community.
The model’s success underlines the potential of Sea Lords of the West to create similar economic benefits, scaling up impact across coastal communities along the Irish Sea and beyond.
Developing community energy at scale is not just a climate imperative, it’s an exciting opportunity for us all to own a direct stake in our future.
Originally written as a guest blog for Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster (BECBC).
Image source: COP26 Banner
In February, it was hard to ignore the flurry of commentary about Labour’s U-turn on their £28 billion Green Investment Pledge, first announced in 2021.
£28 billion a year in green capital investment, every year, until 2030 was going to turbocharge the green industrial revolution to be spent on battery manufacturing, green hydrogen, offshore wind, tree planting, flood defences and home insulation etc.
Without a doubt, green investment and investing in local net zero economies is desperately needed. But Labour’s £28 billion Green Pledge was becoming a thorny, bulbous distraction.
A bit like Boris’ £350 million a week NHS Bus Pledge – central to the election campaign in 2019 – but always destined to fail.
What’s been less newsworthy but announced by climate scientists on the very same day, is that the world has breached for a whole year, the warming limit of 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels. An announcement that comes hot on the heels of UK investments in new oil and gas fields in the North Sea and the construction of homes and offices that are neither energy-efficient nor climate-resilient.
While a public spending commitment is of course important, the very real and urgent focus should be on the best route to leverage private and public investments in green energy. For example, we need greater clarity on how public funds can leverage private sector investment, howpublic spending can support early-stage net zero businesses and risk financing, as well as for other stages, like the Valley of Death.
We also need a clearer plan as to how green infrastructure can be built faster, planning accelerated, and decisions made quicker.
There is also more that local authorities can do with local investors. Just this week, Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s Community Municipal Investment (CMI) offer hit its £1 million target with a record number of investors. The CMI is delivering real change in communities, through local authority led net zero projects. Are we thinking about this in Cumberland?
As we said in our Green Investment Plan for Cumbria report, Cumberland as a centre of clean energy innovation, is well placed to lead the competitive race to build knowledge networks and supply chains for the net zero goods and services of the 21st century.
But it needs to look beyond its nuclear offering and cheer on, just as loudly, its renewable energy potential and how its own supply chain companies can diversify their portfolio to support more local green businesses. Think green hydrogen projects at Carlisle, Workington, and Whitehaven or green steelopportunities in Workington (or its surrounds) etc.
Along West Cumbria’s coastline there are eight offshore wind installationsbringing major business, investment, and job opportunities along with it. Offshore wind has been making an impact in Cumbria since 2006. Official data for offshore wind generation is defined by where the supply ‘lands’ – Robin Rigg (East and West) – is located midway between the Galloway and Cumbrian coasts in the Solway Firth in Scottish waters, but ‘lands’ in Seaton near Workington in Cumbria. This contrasts with Walney 1, 2, 3, Ormonde, Barrow, and West of Duddon Sands wind farms, which, though an important part of Cumbria’s renewable supply, reach land in Lancashire.
But If I was to walk around Workington or Whitehaven – how many people could tell me about how the offshore wind sector contributes to the local economy or its significant operational and maintenance (O & M) contribution? Possibly they might know about the Robin Rigg Community Fund, funded by RWE, that gives grants to community groups and organisations on both sides of the Solway area.
We should be making much more of Cumberland’s natural born windy coast, it’s bounty of nature-based solutions – positioning Cumberland as a leader in net zero, contributing to global innovation and sustainable growth and being competitive in the future. But to get there, we need strong public policies to drive innovation and help crowd in private investment to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.
Reaching net zero by 2050 is “narrow but still achievable” because of the staggering growth in clean energy technologies, so says the IEA. IEA’s recent updated Net Zero Pathway calls for a tripling of global renewable power capacity (in particular, solar and offshore wind), a doubling of energy efficiency improvements, a steep rise in EV cars and heat pumps and large reductions of methane in the energy sector. Taken together, these measures could account for 80% of the emissions reductions by 2030.
Offshore wind – the spine of the UK and the world’s future electricity system
Image credit: Mike Day
The UK is already home to one of the largest offshore wind sectors in the world (second only to China, followed by the USA and Sweden), providing about 14% of the UK’s electricity generation (or 12.7 GW). In the future, offshore wind is widely expected to become the spine of the electricity system and the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has suggested that by 2050 the UK may have between 65 and 125 GW of offshore wind capacity. Likewise, the National Grid ESO’s Future Energy Scenarios 2022 ‘Consumer Transformation’ scenario projects offshore wind increasing to 110 GW by 2050, providing 56% of total domestic generation.
In line with this, scientists at Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment recently estimated that solar and wind farms could “easily” power the UK by 2050 and suggest that 73% of the energy could come from offshore wind farms, with solar providing 19%. Professor Cameron Hepburn of Environmental Economics at the Smith School of Enterprise highlighted that while it’s likely that nuclear power and other renewables will have a part to play, their analysis finds that it’s entirely possible to power the UK on wind and solar alone.
Reduce the bottlenecks
The Government is aiming for 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030, including up to 5 GW of floating wind and this is expected to drive £155 billion of investment in the UK, supporting around 100,000 jobs. (Source: RenewableUK, February 2023).
But right now, challenges such as high inflation, rising interest rates, low auction prices and the excessive time it takes to gain planning permission and to secure a grid connection, are creating bottlenecks and putting this target and the government’s 2035 target to decarbonise the electricity system at risk. As a ball park, the development and deployment of offshore wind farms can take up 13 years, of this, around 3-5 years is needed for planning and consenting. (Source: Renewable UK, 2022)
Delays in grid connection is one of the greatest risks facing all new energy infrastructure especially renewable energy. Currently, more than 600 renewable energy projects are waiting in queues of up to 13 years to begin operation. These delays come at a cost. According to EnBW, for every year that the grid connection to their Morgan and Mona offshore projects (developed in partnership with bp) is delayed, a minimum additional £462m of DEVEX, in the form of option fees, will be incurred.
As noted by National Grid, more than five times [than has been built in the last 30 years] of transmission infrastructure will need to be installed to decarbonise the power system by 2035. This includes investing in sub-stations to connect offshore wind farms to the onshore network, as well as more pylons and electrical lines to move energy around the country.
Another solution, as set out by National Grid ESO, is the Holistic Network Design (HND) which is based around the connection of 23 GW of offshore wind being connected by the end of the decade, and includes projects that secured seabed leases through The Crown Estate’s Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 and Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind Leasing Round. The HND would bypass onshore grid bottlenecks by coordinating wind farms to share transmission lines offshore, before they are connected to the grid. For example for the North West region, there could be an offshore connection between Scotland, Cumbria and Wales via a high voltage undersea direct current (HVDC) cable, with potential for other projects to connect in the future.
Calls for reforms to the UK government’s contract for difference (CfD) mechanism are also growing louder. Just recently, we saw the CfD auction round (AR5) fail to bring forward any new offshore wind projects. Up to 5GW of offshore wind was eligible to compete in the auction – but no offshore wind developers took part after many complained that the maximum price (£44 per megawatt hour (MWh)) was too low to account for cost increases – largely due to inflation and hikes in capital costs. Instead, new capacity was secured by onshore wind and solar and a small amount of tidal projects and, for the first time, geothermal.
Earlier this year, Sweden’s Vattenfall scrapped their plans for a giant offshore windfarm off the Norfolk coast because rising costs meant it was no longer profitable. The company bid a record low price of £37.35 a megawatt hour (MWh) for the electricity generated.
The future is local – Local Area Energy Plans
We agree with Chris Skidmore’s MP recent report that ‘The Future is Local’ and whoever forms the next government, greater devolution to help drive local net zero plans is needed. The report suggests a Local Net Zero Charter and the importance of Local Area Energy Plans across the UK. It also recommends developing a local Net Zero Delivery Framework to enable collaboration between UK Government and local and regional authorities, using the Local Net Zero Forums.
Make the most of Britain’s Energy Coast
Along Cumbria’s coastline there are eight offshore wind installations bringing major business, investment, and job opportunities along with it.
Offshore wind has been making an impact in Cumbria since 2006. Official data for offshore wind generation is defined by where the supply ‘lands’ – Robin Rigg (East and West)- is located midway between the Galloway and Cumbrian coasts in the Solway Firth in Scottish waters, but ‘lands’ in Seaton near Workington in Cumbria. This is in contrast to Walney 1, 2, 3, Ormonde, Barrow, and West of Duddon Sands wind farms, which, though an important part of Cumbria’s renewable supply, reach land in Lancashire.
Less well known is that as part of the consenting process for the Robin Rigg Wind Farm in the Solway Firth there is the Robin Rigg Community Fund, funded by RWE. Grants are available to community groups and organisations on both sides of the Solway area.
Table source: Green Investment Plan Cumbria (2021) (ch 4)
Barrow and Workington ports provide significant offshore Operations & Maintenance (O&M) with this set to expand with the new Mona, Morgan and Morecambe offshore wind proposals. According to the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, the UK offshore wind operations and maintenance market will grow faster in relative terms than any other offshore wind sub-sector market over the next decade.
Socio – economic reliance on the nuclear sector
Despite Cumbria’s significant offshore wind and maintenance contribution, West Cumbria’s socio-economic identity remains deeply tied and very reliant on the nuclear sector. In 2021, Sellafield and the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) generated £1.30 billion of GVA across the local economy, equivalent to 40% of the area’s total GVA. In total, Sellafield and LLWR supported 21,650 jobs, or 28% of total employment, including more than 11,000 jobs in the supply chain. (Source: The economic contribution of the NDA to the West Cumbria economy, April 2022).
There are also several plans, with investors ready and waiting, for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to be deployed in West Cumbria. As well as plans for the Dean Moor Solar Farm and battery storage facility with enough renewable energy to power over 50,000 family homes every year. Plus, there’s an approved green hydrogen plant in Barrow that will supply hydrogen to Kimberly-Clark from 2025 and the MNZ (Morecambe Net Zero) Cluster has taken further steps forward to convert the North and South Morecambe gas fields for carbon capture and storage.
Project Collette – shared prosperity for all
Cumbria could be making much more of its windy coast and we hope innovative projects such as Project Collette which aims to be a 1.2 GW (with 80-100 turbines) community owned wind farm off the coast of West Cumbria, will be taken seriously and embraced by the local community. If successful, Project Collette would be England’s first community owned offshore wind farm, and it would be Cumbria’s first offshore wind farm with its supply also ‘landing’ in Cumbria. Collette’s renewable energy would be used to decarbonise the local area, support green hydrogen projects at Carlisle, Workington, and Whitehaven and green steelopportunities in Workington (or its surrounds).
Click here to read about Project Collette in more detail. If successful, all of these plans could lead to Cumbria becoming a strategically important center of clean energy generation, and a significant contributor towards the UK’s net-zero ambition.
This week, it’s been exciting to see the first ever UK Hydrogen Week celebrate some of the many hydrogen projects in the pipeline. The buzz is testament to the growing momentum of hydrogen’s potential to decarbonise a range of hard to abate sectors such as long-haul transport, chemicals, fertilisers, iron and steel.
To be clear though, right now, most hydrogen production is fossil-fuel based and the UK currently produces and uses about 700,000 tonnes of hydrogen per annum. Very little – if any – so far is low carbon.
But things are moving very fast with demonstration projects being announced almost every week. The government is investing up to £240 million via the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and is developing an investor roadmap, business models and has outlined plans for a globally recognised low carbon hydrogen certification scheme. The European Commission has also published its definition for green hydrogen that now clearly states that nuclear-derived hydrogen – pink hydrogen – will not be labelled as “green” within the European taxonomy.
Getting “green” status is seen as a way to help unlock billions of pounds in funding for the nuclear industry. But, in the UK it is not yet clear if nuclear will get this status. The UK’s Nuclear Industry Association thinks that the UK should follow the science and label nuclear as green in its sustainable finance taxonomy to make it “cheaper and easier to finance nuclear projects from a wider pool of capital and (according to them) the UN confirms nuclear has the lowest lifecycle carbon, lowest land use, and lowest ecosystem impact of all electricity generation technologies.”
Long Term Reassurance on Cost and Viability Needed
In the UK – according to the Green Finance Institute (GFI), growing the UK’s green hydrogen industry could generate a cumulative GVA of £320 billion by 2050, including £250 billion of exports, and up to 120,000 new jobs by 2050.
Before this can happen, there is still a lot of work to do to find the most economical way to produce green hydrogen and as hydrogen is currently a nascent area of energy policy – better long-term funding, and policy reassurance is needed to support early producers and users of green hydrogen.
If they get it right – the rewards will be substantial. According to research done by the RMI [1]for the EU, supporting early producers and users of green hydrogen: spending up to €15 billion to offset investment risks, between now and 2030 could generate more than 20 times as much private spending on advanced clean energy technologies.
First Mover Risks – Hacking Through the Thorns?
Image source: Carboncredits.com
First mover risks
The “first mover disadvantage”is presently a major barrier to scaling up quickly. For example, for early movers investing in the current high electrolyser costs could make these projects uncompetitive in the future. At the same time, to be financeable, a hydrogen project must also have an off-taker, but right now, for off-takers the risk is signing on to long term contracts that could lock them into paying higher-than-market rates in the future.
Green hydrogen is still 2-3 times more expensive than blue hydrogen (produced from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage). Most hydrogen forecasts show cost parity between green and blue hydrogen somewhere between 2030 and 2040 and falling technology costs and rising carbon prices will ensure green hydrogen outcompetes fossil alternatives. [2]
Multi-Coloured Hydrogen Opportunities for Cumbria
The North West of England has the industry, infrastructure and innovation to make low carbon hydrogen energy a reality and Cumbria has significant potential to contribute to this opportunity.
In our Green Investment Plan for Cumbria – that was initially created to look at alternatives to the coal mine – we commissioned Arup to consider more deeply an emerging hydrogen strategy for Cumbria. Firstly, this included a large-scale, grid-connected green hydrogen production facility located at (or near) Harker, north of Carlisle. This would provide a means to overcome England/Scotland’s grid constraints using the strategic road network to distribute energy, whilst unlocking the expansion of further onshore renewables.
Second, the plan is to use surplus power from the existing Robin Rigg offshore wind farm (in the Solway Firth), to generate green hydrogen and oxygen from an electrolyser located near Workington, adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant. The final effluent (treated water) from this plant would provide the water input to the electrolyser, and surplus electricity from the wind farm would be used to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The innovation proposed at Workington demonstrates a ‘circularity’ in energy use that could be replicable across the country at wastewater sites.
Diagram source: Arup, UK
Project “Collette“
Third, at the heart of our thinking on green hydrogen in Cumbria is Project “Collette” (as in collective) which would be a 1.2 GW community-focused offshore wind farm that would use excess power to produce green hydrogen, and this would create, effectively, a storage buffer to deal with the intermittency of wind as a means of transfer of energy to shore. We calculated between 850 and 1100 Kt C02e of savings each year and these savings could be enough on their own, to significantly contribute to savings needed for Cumbria to meet its net zero targets. An essential component though is ‘Anchor’, high energy users or off-takers, that offer a ready market for green energy generation, thereby underpinning the investment rationale either for the community, for the business or in a partnership.
The giant among such potential off takers in Cumbria is Sellafield, but there are many other large companies, institutions and utilities with large buildings and energy demands such as United Utilities, Electricity Northwest, Stagecoach, BAE Systems, Westmorland General Hospital. All of these have a decarbonisation agenda and offer potential hydrogen investment opportunities with a community element.
Moving All Things Forward at Once
At this early stage of low carbon hydrogen production, all methods, and technologies for producing and using hydrogen should be explored to get the market moving. But most hopes rest on “green” hydrogen.
Excitingly, already in development, is Carlton Power’s Barrow-in-Furness green hydrogen project that would supply hydrogen directly to Kimberly-Clark’s paper mill along with other industrial off-takers in Barrow and the wider area. The project is initially expected to be 35 MW produce 3500 tonnes of hydrogen every year, with expansion capacity planned as demand grows. [3] Carlton Power is a good example of an organisation taking first mover risks, as detailed earlier and as described in our recent podcast[4].
In Cumbria, in addition to its green hydrogen potential, it is very likely that new nuclear generation including small modular reactors (SMR) will be able to deliver pink hydrogen by the next decade.
More controversially, there is also the Morecambe Bay Gas Fields with the Barrow Gas Terminal operated by Spirit Energy that offers a blue hydrogen opportunity with a massive carbon use and storage (CCUS) potential. Importantly, hydrogen allows vast quantities of clean energy to be stored for long a duration for use in peak demand and seasonal energy balancing. [5]Then there is the ongoing testing by DNV at Spadeadam in Cumbria that is working on building up the case for hydrogen in domestic heating.
Potentially, Cumbria has many investable hydrogen projects to help jumpstart the UK’s hydrogen economy and given Cumbria’s significant net zero revenue and job creation opportunities, it makes little sense that a coal mine has been approved as part of the mix.
[2] The cost of green hydrogen production is quantified using the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and this is driven by different technologies and scenarios for production. Green hydrogen is made by the electrolysis of water powered by renewable energy sources; it does not produce CO2 and so is the ‘cleanest’ option
By Nick Robins, professor in practice for sustainable finance at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute, and Ciara Shannon, director of EdenWorksGreen. Originally posted on March 21, 2021.
The Walney Extension is one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms and is 15 km or so off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Photo Credit: BBC/ PA
Cumbria is a county with a strong industrial heritage and unrivalled natural assets. But it has also attracted international notoriety for the county council’s decision to approve plans to open the new Woodhouse Colliery. The decision is widely seen to be wholly incompatible with the UK’s climate objectives: the Climate Change Committee (CCC) states that “a new coking coal mine in Cumbria will increase global emissions and have an appreciable impact on the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets”. More than this, the colliery risks becoming a stranded asset, as the use of coking coal in steel making could be displaced completely by 2035, according to the CCC. This means that any economic benefits in terms of regional revitalisation and jobs would be fragile and short lived.
A better route to economic prosperity after Covid-19 is urgently needed, one that is anchored in the industries of the future, rather than those of the past. Cumbria County Council’s recent decision to review the plans for the colliery is a welcome step and presents a perfect opportunity to change course and throw its weight behind a robust green recovery plan.
Drawing on the county’s human potential and striking natural endowment, a green recovery plan could be built around four key pillars:
1. Cumbria’s rich potential for green economic development The first pillar focuses on harnessing Cumbria’s unique green assets for the national effort to build a resilient, net zero economy by 2050. Here, the county has two core strengths: its renewable energy resources and its rural landscape. Historically, Cumbria’s ‘energy coast’ focused first on coal then on nuclear; now it is moving rapidly into the renewable era. The Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, located 15km west of Barrow-in-Furness, is one of the world’s largest, and the area hosts over a fifth of the UK’s wind farm generation capacity.
Cumbria also has a ‘first of its kind’ £12.7m hydrogen research facility currently being built and this will investigate how existing transmission assets could supply hydrogen to heat homes and deliver green energy to industry. Add to this the Cumbrian coast has one of the UK’s highest tidal ranges, with plans to develop a variety of tidal lagoons are being mooted, as well as an ‘electric bridge’ across the Solway Firth. Inland are many of the UK’s fastest flowing waterways with more than half of the north west’s potential for small scale hydropower generation. Community owned energy also offers a route for connecting renewables with local empowerment.
What is missing, however, is a clear strategy to seize all this green energy potential in ways that can provide high quality local jobs and supply chains.
Alongside renewable energy, Cumbria could also become one of the country’s hubs for nature-based solutions. The county is the one of the most rural places in England, with rich agricultural resources and landscapes that attract almost 50 million visitors a year. With the UK’s departure from the EU, the reshaping of agricultural subsidies holds out the potential for new business models built around sustainable land management, enhancing natural capital, not least through carbon storage. One priority could be to improve the management of peatland in the Lake District, which holds about 23 million tonnes of carbon. Cumbria is also one of five pilot areas trialing the development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) and this could be the starting point for kick-starting business and financing models attracting new investment into nature restoration. This will also be critical to strengthen resilience to the physical impacts of climate change.
2. Economic renewal through local net zero plans This pillar would focus on the development of local net zero plans to drive economic renewal, not least for the housing sector and transport system. The county’s economic strategy already highlights the construction sector as a strength, supporting 14,000 jobs and involving over 800 small businesses. This sector will provide the foundation for retrofitting every building in the county that needs it, to be energy efficient, net zero and resilient to flooding.
There is also the option in some areas to include large scale district heating networks, along with area-based retrofits focusing on entire streets and communities. Here, a special focus on social housing and low income households presents the prospect of a triple dividend: lower energy bills, better health and reduced pollution.
Transport infrastructure will also need rethinking to deliver zero emission connectivity across this rural region, rolling out electric vehicle infrastructure as well as expanding public transport and rail links. Taking an active approach to the net zero transition could also be the basis to realise Cumbria’s ambitions in advanced manufacturing across the industrial, transport, built environment and nature-based solution sectors. A new report by Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) will shortly set out the county’s green jobs potential.
3. Community participation in plans The third pillar of the strategy should focus on the vital role of citizen engagement across Cumbria in the design and delivery of plans. A striking conclusion of the UK’s Citizen Assembly last year was the need for climate action to be fair, in terms of people’s jobs, families and communities. Too often in the past, economic transitions have been something done to the people rather than shaped by them. New approaches to citizen involvement are needed: Kendal has already set up a climate change citizens’ jury.
To be successful, the plans to reach net zero have to be rooted in community participation across the county, particularly by those whose lives and livelihoods have been hit hardest by the pandemic. This is not only the right thing to do, but it generates greater levels of innovation and ambition, as local people are put in the driving seat. A number of cities and regions are setting up broad-based ‘climate commissions’, to drive this process, for example in Yorkshire and Humber across the Pennines. With nearly 70 organisations spanning the public, private and third sectors, the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership will be an important driver in developing this shared sense of the way forward, with the overarching goal of achieving net zero by 2037.
4. Investment to make it happen The fourth and final pillar is to mobilise private and public investment. A ‘wall of money’ is building up from UK investors and banks committed to net zero and many are now supporting climate action through a just transition. The challenge is the absence of a pipeline of bankable projects that not only deliver financial returns, but also generate real benefits for local communities.
Here, Cumbria, like every part of the country, needs to work out how to access the new UK Infrastructure Bank whose missions will be to tackle climate change and support regional development. Importantly, this also means drawing on local finance: one estimate suggests there is around £4 billion of investable wealth per 100,000 people in the UK, which means that for the 500,000 in Cumbria there could be around £20 billion. Currently, there are very few mechanisms to enable people to channel their savings and pensions into investments that deliver returns and support the local economy. Recently, local authorities in Warrington and West Berkshire have issued Community Municipal Investments to tap a growing demand from savers. The same could be done in Cumbria.
Of course, making this course correction will not be easy. Yet Cumbria has perhaps more potential to prosper from a just transition to net zero than many other parts of the UK, given its wealth of green assets. Drawing up a green recovery plan in 2021, based on these four pillars, could set the county on its way.
HyNTS FutureGrid based at DNV GL’s site in Spadeadam, Cumbria will allow for testing of up to 100% blends of hydrogen in a controlled environment. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
With thanks to Green Alliance‘s Inside Track for posting this article originally.
