The Green Edge Reports Roundup, May-24: Part Two - Sectors
Continuing with our selection of reports and other publications from this month’s reading list.
Part Two of our crop of green reports from this months reading list. Also see Part One - General.
As usual, you can find all these reports and more in our searchable reports list on The Green Edge Data Portal.
֎ Reports we feel are particularly worth a look.
Energy
EAUC Scotland: Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Report, 2022-23
EAUC, April 2024.
Captures emissions reporting data going back to 2015-16 and shows progress in what is being reported. Once reporting is established, it means finding a way of reducing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and helps shape the behaviour of organisations, staff and students.
Impact Case Studies
UK Energy Research Centre, April 2024.
Great set of case studies across multiple elements of the emerging and new energy system. If these are of interest and value, there’s a huge library of excellent reports and papers on key aspects of the energy transition across both technology and social sciences.
Grid
Assessing the impact of voluntary actions on the grid
RMI and Zero Grid, May 2024.
US focused view of voluntary corporate actions in purchasing renewable energy, renewable energy certificates, and tax equity finance. The practice is spreading, and it would be useful to know the potential in the UK and the role of forward commitments in the financing of renewable energy investments in wind and solar.
Wind
UK Offshore Wind Report 2023
Crown Estate, May 2024.
A comprehensive status report which parades the progress being made across the 45+ current wind farms, and those in development. Full of data and insight into the near future. Skills get a good mention and links into the more detailed work being undertaken by the Offshore Wind Industry Council.
Mapping the current and future workforce and skills requirements in Scotland’s onshore wind industry
Climate X Change, April 2024.
A high growth sector as regards employment (6,900 FTE in 2024 rising to 20,500 in 2027) driven by high investment and construction activity across a series of rural locations. There will clearly need to be significant coordination to support the growth and a big increase in awareness to attract new entrants. One point that strikes us is that the detail shared here suggest the skills are well known, and so delivering education and training programmes should be easier to mobilise.
Carbon Capture and Storage
֎Green Jobs Delivery Group: CCS Task and Finish Group. Findings and Recommendations of the Group
BP, CCSA and ECITB for the Green Jobs Delivery Group, 2024.
Some jobs generated: 3000 by 2030 (direct), and wider generation of around 15,000. Skills are seen as a constraint and suggests there is much to be learned from the North Sea Transition Authority’s map. We find the use of heat maps (Figure 4.2, Page 16) to highlight those occupations that take time to train/in perceived shortage for and are in demand. The ‘red’ occupations are mostly ones we know well and have been around for years e.g. welders, pipefitters, project managers, construction managers, health and safety professionals, and subsea engineering, project and construction. Tells the story of how relatively traditional jobs are the cornerstone of the new, green economy.
General Corporate
֎Breaking business barriers to net zero
Carbon Trust and the Net Zero Intelligence Unit, February 2024.
Identifies three sets of main barriers: barriers to ambition – making the internal business case for net zero; barriers to actions – tackling Scope 3 emissions; and barriers to accountability – concerns about external scrutiny to progress. Without these barriers being successfully tackled skills and jobs will not flow.
֎Infrastructure Progress Review 2024
National Infrastructure Commission, May 2024.
Most of the chapters in this review are very relevant to the green economy: energy and net zero (Chapter 2), transport (5), flood resilience (6), water (7), waste (8), and cross-cutting e.g. natural capital (9). Infrastructure is a critical part of the whole of the UK making the transition to being a net zero economy and society. The review shows patchy progress on most fronts, and a lag in the rate of investment required to ensure a safe, resilient economy and to take full advantage of the opportunities being created.
Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice
Wellcome Foundation, 2024.
Just as it is vital that net zero and sustainability is built in during the design process, here we see sustainability being built into the R&D operation and outputs. This concordat lays out six areas and spells out the observable activity to be undertaken and which should be observable. The concordat is managed by EAUC.
Reward for Failure: The paradox of audit partners’ record payouts amidst poor audit quality
The Audit Reform Lab, University of Sheffield, May 2024.
We list this report - which is really about accountancy practice - as it makes the point to us about audit moving beyond just the financial aspects but towards the whole supply chain and emissions. If so many “mistakes” can be made when auditing relatively straightforward and well-established accountancy practice, what are the challenges when we start expecting eco and carbon audits?
Food & Agriculture
֎Powering productivity for sustainable UK food security
Anglia Ruskin University for the Agricultural Industries Confederation, 2023.
At the start of this report there are a few huge statistics: the agri-food sector contributes around £127bn per year to the UK economy, employing 4 million people with agriculture accounting for 500,000 of this total. Much of the food chain is going through a set of major changes with agriculture having to shift practices hugely. The shift is towards a fully sustainable model, which calls for a mindset change and a host of capabilities around land-use strategy, technology, data and infrastructure. Such a large-scale systems change suggests the need for high level leadership, guidance and governance.
Increasing low-carbon energy in Scottish agriculture through a whole systems approach
Climate X Change, August 2023.
This detailed report carries an important message around farm-based capability to handle the range of advice and information to reduce carbon inputs, and to then report this information to customers (especially the larger retailers) for Scope 3 emissions reporting. Every piece of reporting creates a task, and that will take some time to undertake on a regular basis. Yes, there are increasingly large number of platforms to be used to help here, but there is a choice, and this means moving data between farm-based platforms to a retailers or a wholesalers. We wonder what role central Government could play here across the whole food supply chain.
Built Environment
Heat Resilience and Sustainable Cooling
House of Commons, Environmental Audit Committee, January 2024 HC279.
Simple message: temperatures are rising, and the vast majority of buildings across the UK are not prepared. Both existing and new buildings can take multiple actions to develop ways for heat resilience. This extends the list of tasks to be educated and trained to undertake, and are an extension of the retrofit skills set.
Heat and Retrofitting
֎Roadmap of Skills for Net Zero: Competencies for Domestic Retrofitting
Construction Leadership Council, May 2024.
A practical and useful report which hopefully will help guide the many education and training bodies and colleges across the UK. It is worth recognising that this report of a part of the wider body of work on skills by the Construction Leadership Council e.g. Skills Plan for 2021 to 2025. Together this is a key body of work which can be built on by both IfATE and the Green Jobs Delivery Group.
Domestic Energy Solutions Primer: Energy Storage
Good Homes Alliance, April 2024.
Covers three forms of energy storage: electrical, thermal, and solid material based. Shows the potential for energy capture and storage within individual homes, and raises the question over the developments across the grid if more and more homes become close to being energy self-sufficient.
Manufacturing
֎Manufacturing Matters: The cornerstone of a competitive green economy
Institute for Public Policy Research, May 2024.
Simple messages here: UK manufacturing has declined more than many other countries; strong manufacturing has multiple benefits; and the net zero transition offers a great opportunity for revitalising manufacturing. The analysis proposes three sectors to focus on: wind manufacturing, heat pumps, and green transport.
M5 Advanced Manufacturing: Powering the UK Economy.
Sector federations for food and drink, aerospace and defence, automotive, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, November 2023.
Interesting report which pulls together the core statistics on the scale, growth and contribution of five key manufacturing sectors. From our point of view there are three aspects of interest: these five sectors have 35 clusters across the UK (14 for food, 6 for chemicals, 5 for aerospace and defence, 5 for pharmaceuticals, and 5 for automotive) and so are integral to specific places developing workforce plans; these sectors are all tackling net zero across their own operations and are contribute solutions for the wider UK economy; and, there is a big call for greater co-ordination and alignment on skills across the UK. This later point is a major issue for multinationals operating across the four nations of the UK. Perhaps the current House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee inquiry into skills will address this point.
Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins
National Academies, 2024.
Digital twins and Ai are coming of age in manufacturing, and we can see i-factories being built e.g. the BMW one in Debree, Hungary. Digital twin technology allows for higher quality (few faults) and reduced energy inputs with both driven by efficiency. It is a significant contributor to the net zero transition in manufacturing.
Mining & Mineral Extraction
Building Capacity for the US Mineral Resources Workforce: Proceeding of a Workshop
National Academies, 2024.
Useful to anyone thinking about developing road maps, identifying workforce skills, and re-shaping current education and training programmes for the key minerals that underpin many key green technologies.
Transport
Heavy Lifting Required: Truckmakers’ Electric Transition
Carbon Tracker, May 2024.
Another important area to make progress - while HGVs make up only 3% of vehicles they are responsible for 30% of emissions. Key here might be the actions and demands of fleet operators as they make their net zero commitments.