Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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The Knowledge: net zero ship and carbon measures reflect the success of this activity. Finally, the personal motivations of the people who work to deliver water and waste services make a differ- ence. Many people working in the water sector come from scientific and environmental backgrounds and this means a widespread appreciation and respect for scientific consensus on climate change. The impacts of extremes in weather are also felt keenly and directly by those working in water and waste. For ex- ample, the record rainfall and flooding over recent months and the hot weather of sum- mer 2018 were tangible events which require hard work and innovation to deal with. Events like these can make climate change seem real and pressing to those involved. As a result, the water sector has been an active supporter on climate change policy and we have not seen arguments for delaying climate action, in contrast to other sectors of the economy. Progress through the 2010s The new net zero commitment hasn't come out of nowhere. We can trace clear evidence of heightened attention and ambition on climate change mitigation in the water indus- try over the last 10 years. The Strategic Direction State- ments published ahead of the 2010-2015 price review period clearly acknowledged the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the first time and made long-term commit- ments to play a role in reduc- ing carbon emissions. The economic regulator also played a role at this time. Ofwat pre-empted govern- ment's mandatory carbon reporting requirements by adding carbon reporting requirements in 2007. We also saw evidence of regulatory commitment in the 'Playing our part' policy document released in July 2010, which set out the importance of greenhouse gas emissions in the sector and gave a collec- tive focus. There has also been a notable level of collaboration across companies. Subject- specific Water UK networks and the activities of groups like the Institute of Water have meant a wide sharing of ideas and approaches. As a result, many companies have adopted the best practice ways of managing energy, generating renewable energy and trialling electric vehicles. Reporting has been a key example of this constructive joint-working; UKWIR's development of the industry carbon accounting workbook over 10 years ago was a first for any sector and is still evolving and being used today. These commitments and the activity and invest- ment over 10 years have largely focused around the most material and economic sources of emissions, namely electricity use and renewable energy. As a result of that focus, net operational carbon emissions in the sector have nearly halved since 2010. This has been driven by the rapid growth in renewable energy generation across companies, combined with the growing procurement of renewable- backed import electricity and the decarbonisation of the UK electricity mix as a whole. In addition, companies' ongoing focus on energy efficiency has successfully kept energy use stable despite improvements in treatment standards and population growth. This level of improvement would not have occurred with- out the ambition and invest- ment committed over the last decade. But this activity has been supported by short and medium-term economic ben- efits and government policy has played a strong role in this. Looking ahead to achieve net zero, however, the chal- lenges become more difficult and action may be required which isn't directly economi- cally beneficial. As we enter the 2020s, it is clear that pursuing purely short-term economically beneficial carbon reduction activities is not cutting global emissions fast enough. There is now recognition of this in the attitudes of the investment community, encapsulated by Bank of England governor Mark Carney who points out that current investment as- sumptions put us on a course for 3-40C of global tempera- ture rise and therefore must change. It is unclear the extent to which this is driven by social pressure and how much by a pragmatic realisation that climate change threatens human prosperity. Either way, investors are asking more questions and expecting more action. Publicly traded companies in particular, driven towards a long-term social purpose, will face growing pressure to decarbonise. The challenges of the 2020s We've described a sec- tor which is committed to reducing carbon emissions and which has a good track record of progress. However, as with most of us across the world, much deeper change is required. The natural focus on economic activity and quick- wins has meant an effective decarbonisation of energy, while other, trickier areas of emissions have received little focus. The new, ambitious targets for 2030 give the impe- tus to tackle those areas and shine a light on the sources Workers from Severn Trent. www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | APRIL 2020 | 41 JOURNEY TO NET ZERO