On 28 March 2023, PoliticsHome published a featured article by the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) entitled Mission Zero: Why the Skidmore Review can kickstart the nation’s journey to net zero. The article is the result of a conversation between PoliticsHome and UKCRIC academic experts on Chris Skidmore’s Net Zero Review published on 13 January 2023.
Former Energy Minister Skidmore’s Net Zero Review contains 129 recommendations that touch on a variety of topics, such as how industry might be encouraged to play a larger role, how to make better use of infrastructure, and how to build more energy-efficient homes. All of them aim to maximise job prospects, economic investment, and opportunities while advancing towards the achievement of legally required goals to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The reason a strategy is really important is that so many things have to change and they all have to change at the same time, everything's got to end up being electric. There'll be no more diesel trains, no more diesel trucks. We've got to change the way industry works. This can only be done if we coordinate things. Dr Jennifer Schooling OBE, Director of CSIC
Whilst the Skidmore review seems to provide a path for the UK to deliver on its net zero ambition, academic experts agree that it is only a starting point. Challenges remain about putting in place coordinated and collaborative actions from diverse sectors and partners, such as policy makers, universities and industries, to achieve a collaborative strategy.
UKCRIC is already driving collaborations to make sure that the research community through the underpinning science and engineering support plays a crucial part in the transition to net zero. UKCRIC experts agree that “the Skidmore Review is a considered and important document in setting out the specific short-term and medium-term actions required to achieve the nation’s long-term net-zero goal, with a key strength being that it highlights measures to start now”.
Dr Jennifer Schooling, CSIC Director and one of the UKCRIC’s panel experts, supports Skidmore’s core recommendation on the need to produce a cross-sectoral infrastructure strategy by 2025. During the discussion with PoliticsHome, she stated that “The climate crisis is urgent, and the response is not owned by any one sector”, but that positive results can only be achieved by bringing together diverse perspectives from the worlds of government, academia, industry and the community. She suggests that the need for a coherent and coordinated strategy is crucial, “so many things have to change, and they all have to change at the same time, (…) everything's got to end up being electric. There'll be no more diesel trains, no more diesel trucks. We've got to change the way industry works. This can only be done if we coordinate things.”
All the experts agreed that without a collaborative strategy that defines shared objectives vigorously monitored by the newly established Department for Energy Security and Net-Zero, there is a risk of fragmented activities that could undermine the urgent challenge of climate change. The panel suggests that “such a strategy will only succeed if universities, tiers of government and industry work collaboratively”. Dr Schooling concludes by stating that “We need a programme of things that need to be achieved (…). It can feel overwhelming because there is a lot to do, but there's always a lot to do. And we do it.”
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Read the full PoliticsHome article here.
Read a related article by Dr Tom Dolan and Dr Joanne Leach, November 2022, Infrastructure and urban systems for a net zero, sustainable, resilient and prosperous economy.