Connected Places Catapult ‘Nations Pledge, Cities Deliver’
Connected Places Catapult (CPC) describes itself as the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and places. An organisation which receives a core grant from the UK government but is independent, CPC sees climate change as one of the biggest innovation drivers of our time – and is supporting new approaches to progress here across a range of areas.
One such area, of critical importance, is supporting places in developing a holistic, integrated approach to reaching net zero. In this blog, we’re excited to share details of two initiatives in this space – the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, and the launch of the Net Zero Navigator tool, which is the outcome of a collaboration between CPC and OnePlanet.
Financial Innovation
In the final hours of COP26 in Glasgow, OnePlanet was very pleased to attend an event hosted by The UK Cities Climate Investment Commission (UK CCIC). The UK CCIC is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult, Core Cities and London Councils which explores approaches to addressing the challenge of financing Net Zero in major cities across the UK.
During the event the Commission presented its research which led to the conclusion that around £200 billion (in a range of £125bn – £416bn) must be invested to achieve Net Zero across London and UK Core Cities.
UK Cities are already living with the consequences of climate change with heat waves and flooding already hitting large parts of the UK. Many Core Cities have already declared climate emergencies but given stretched budgets and competing priorities (for example – 13% of households in England are living in fuel poverty), financing the necessary investment to reach net zero is simply not possible from the local government purse.
Nonetheless, Chair of Core Cities and leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, spoke about cities being essential in order to deliver UK-wide decarbonisation targets and in leading the Green Industrial Revolution. As Kate Forbes MSP said at the end of the event, ‘reaching net zero will either be done to communities or with them’.
In this context, innovative financing approaches can help square the circle. By bundling multiple net zero interventions into a single place-based package (and potentially ‘joining up’ many of these across cities), an investable proposition can be developed which would be more attractive to private finance. Collaboration is key – between places, between industry verticals and between financial players – to help find a path to a sustainable future.
Practical Tools
While the UKCCIC is focussed on financial innovation, Connected Places Catapult and OnePlanet have teamed up to support local authorities at the ‘coalface’ (unfortunate pun intended) of net zero plan making. OnePlanet have been working to implement CPC’s Net Zero Navigator Tool (developed with Useful Projects, CDP, Space Syntax and Expedition Engineering) online and joining it up with OnePlanet technology. The outcome is an integrated tool which helps local authorities and partners, create, make the case for and execute practical plans to reach net zero.
We are hosting a webinar on the 6th December to discuss and demonstrate the tool – register here to find out more.
Connected Places Catapult (CPC) describes itself as the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and places. An organisation which receives a core grant from the UK government but is independent, CPC sees climate change as one of the biggest innovation drivers of our time – and is supporting new approaches to progress here across a range of areas.
One such area, of critical importance, is supporting places in developing a holistic, integrated approach to reaching net zero. In this blog, we’re excited to share details of two initiatives in this space – the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, and the launch of the Net Zero Navigator tool, which is the outcome of a collaboration between CPC and OnePlanet.
Financial Innovation
In the final hours of COP26 in Glasgow, OnePlanet was very pleased to attend an event hosted by The UK Cities Climate Investment Commission (UK CCIC). The UK CCIC is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult, Core Cities and London Councils which explores approaches to addressing the challenge of financing Net Zero in major cities across the UK.
During the event the Commission presented its research which led to the conclusion that around £200 billion (in a range of £125bn – £416bn) must be invested to achieve Net Zero across London and UK Core Cities.
UK Cities are already living with the consequences of climate change with heat waves and flooding already hitting large parts of the UK. Many Core Cities have already declared climate emergencies but given stretched budgets and competing priorities (for example – 13% of households in England are living in fuel poverty), financing the necessary investment to reach net zero is simply not possible from the local government purse.
Nonetheless, Chair of Core Cities and leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, spoke about cities being essential in order to deliver UK-wide decarbonisation targets and in leading the Green Industrial Revolution. As Kate Forbes MSP said at the end of the event, ‘reaching net zero will either be done to communities or with them’.
In this context, innovative financing approaches can help square the circle. By bundling multiple net zero interventions into a single place-based package (and potentially ‘joining up’ many of these across cities), an investable proposition can be developed which would be more attractive to private finance. Collaboration is key – between places, between industry verticals and between financial players – to help find a path to a sustainable future.
Practical Tools
While the UKCCIC is focussed on financial innovation, Connected Places Catapult and OnePlanet have teamed up to support local authorities at the ‘coalface’ (unfortunate pun intended) of net zero plan making. OnePlanet have been working to implement CPC’s Net Zero Navigator Tool (developed with Useful Projects, CDP, Space Syntax and Expedition Engineering) online and joining it up with OnePlanet technology. The outcome is an integrated tool which helps local authorities and partners, create, make the case for and execute practical plans to reach net zero.
We are hosting a webinar on the 6th December to discuss and demonstrate the tool – register here to find out more.