Tuesday 5 October 2021
The Big Zero Report – Gemserv
Businesses play a key role in the journey towards net zero and curbing global emissions by 2050.
That is why we recently published our Big Zero Report – a compilation of thought leadership from our partners and an exploration into what top experts believe must be done to accelerate progress towards a more sustainable world.
The report is available to download for free here and you can read what Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng made of it here.
We spoke with experts from Gemserv to get an insight into what progress they believe has been made and what the next important steps are.
Trevor Hutchings, Director of Strategy, Communications and Public Sector, said: “I think what’s interesting is the progress we have made so far, as businesses, as an economy to decarbonise, has largely been achieved without the public or businesses really being involved and having to change things fundamentally.”
He believes that meeting the pathway to net zero by 2050 will involve “much more intervention in people’s lives and behaviour change to encourage them to adopt new technologies and new ways of working – that’s going to be fundamental to this shift.”
James Higgins, Partner – Low Carbon, said: “It’s a really interesting time for policy around net zero.
“There’s a real shift underway at the highest level of government and when we look at the aspiration and ambition around our climate change targets and objectives, the UK sees its almost post-Brexit role on the international stage as being the leader on climate.
“Actually, that can not only help create a role and profile for us but be an economic opportunity.”
In terms of low carbon technologies, Clare Jackson, Head of Innovation, commented: “The technologies that I’m really excited about are within the hydrogen space.
“We manage the Hydrogen Taskforce, which is a group of organisations that are leading on hydrogen in the UK and are developing some really interesting technologies that could make a massive difference to our ability to meet net zero.
“There’s a lot of people out there who will claim hydrogen is the solution to everything, that’s definitely not the case, it is in no way a silver bullet, it cannot solve all of our problems.
“But it just so happens to have characteristics and properties which make it the perfect complement to electrification. Hydrogen is just perfect for those applications.”
Watch the video for the full interviews and insight.
