Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | DECEMBER 2021 | 9 Policy & Regulation Analysis COP26 has set us on the right trajectory Utility Week gauges industry reaction to the announcements made at COP26, including its recognition of the role of the water sector in tackling climate change. T he arrival of the COP26 conference in Glasgow was preceded by portents about the dire consequences should leaders fail to make real progress on an agre- ment to help tackle climate change. US climate envoy John Kerry described it as the "last best hope for the world to get its act together". Boris Johnson warned we were at "one minute to midnight". Now that the dust has settled and the horse trading on the final text is over, did the world heed the warnings? Utility Week asked a variety of industry experts to give us their views. Broadly there was praise for the UN cli- mate conference as a stimulus for action globally but there was also frustration that some ambition had been tempered by com- promise. For the British public, there is also a degree of scepticism about whether COP26 will result in meaningful change. Prior to the conference, 33% said it was an opportunity to put in place practical plans to effectively tackle climate change. Asked again aŒer- wards, just 22% felt this had been achieved. While the summit did drive a small increase in the proportion of Brits who think COP26 will result in significant action to tackle climate change, 59% still think this is unlikely to happen. Duncan Burt, chief sustainability officer at National Grid, a principal partner of COP26, says this frustration was felt on the ground in Glasgow. "The climate crisis was better understood than ever before yet there was frustration at the slow pace of political action. As the Glasgow Climate Pact emerged, the outcome of the whole COP26 process itself was not as strong as some might have hoped. "However, I think we need to recognise that overall, the agreements have set us on a trajectory where we can conquer climate change. With commitments to shiŒ finances to activities that help the move towards zero carbon, such as renewable energy; over 40 nations pledged to phase out coal within the 2030s; more than 30 countries agreeing to cut methane emissions by 30%; and a decla- ration on accelerating the transition to 100% zero-emission cars and vans, there were some significant outcomes." He stresses that COP26 must be seen as part of a longer-term process set in train by the Paris agreement in 2015 and that Glas- gow did add pressure to countries to be more ambitious. He says: "Many of the major building blocks of a climate friendly future are under- stood and now simply need to be built: zero- carbon electricity supply, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure are all underway in the US, UK and around the world." Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive of SSE, another COP partner, describes his mood post-conference as one of "cautious optimism". He tells Utility Week that the unexpected US-China declaration to boost climate co- operation, movement on phasing down coal use and the pledge to cut methane emission were all "serious steps forward". He adds: "All around the fringes all the businesses I've spoken to have been focused on the real urgency and momentum that is building in the private sector. People get it and are willing to stand up and be counted. There is genuine consensus on the need to act and put their money where their mouths are." In the lead-up to the event there was much talk about the need for the conference to focus on adaptation to climate change as well as mitigation. Matt Pluke, sustainability leader for Anglian Water, believes COP26 went further in this regard than other iterations of the conference. He also points out that the wider role of the water sector in tackling net zero was acknowledged, including the challenge pre- sented by process emissions. "At COP26, water industry trade bodies around the world joined forces in a call for investment to tackle these process emis- sions. They also committed to establish- ing a research directory to help accelerate the sector's global efforts to reduce nitrous oxide and methane emissions and a global forum to share research conclusions and col- laborate on future activity to expedite the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. I am convinced that this is the key to solving what currently seems like an intractable problem." The conference, Pluke adds, reinforced that the UK water sector, with its net zero route map, has a template for others to fol- low. "And by others, I don't just mean other water sectors, but all other sectors around the world," he says. "Water actors need to be at the heart of adaptation planning because it presents both a risk and an opportunity," he says. "That risk being that the climate crisis is a water crisis – 90% of natural disasters are water- related. Opportunity means when done well, delivering water resilience can bring oppor- tunity, address long-standing problems and ultimately deliver social, environmental and economic prosperity."

• Cover