INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE

gap that makes a big difference.” expertise in the older generation, mid to late 40s and onwards. We need to bring through the younger generation and get that experience into those guys. It’s how you support the skills

An engineer by training, working across the UK cable installation industry on and offshore, Wakefield worked on UK’s first 400kv cross-linked polyethylene plastic (XLPE) installation in the UK. He is excited about skills and knowledge in the UK market and hopes to see it flourish. “There is investment, but a lot of it ends up abroad. We are proud of what has been achieved so far but we think we can do better. We have a lot of brain power here, and we need it deployed on these types of solutions.

“Typically in the past, it would take a cable engineer 10 years before they moved into dealing with the higher voltage ranges. Today, that is being fast tracked and one of the highest costs in offshore wind is cable failure. We are moving into higher voltages and that is a skills gap that will need supporting as we move towards 66kv or even 132kv connections.”

Real Connections

The founding principles behind Equitix are Partnership, Excellence, and Trust. These are people-focussed values and, with two of the founders still active in the company, trusting in human relationships is part of the underlying success the business. Where skills gaps exist, the company will work with partners to supply. There is no ‘parachute in and jump

Introducing PCRAM: the industry methodology for climate resilient investment

Infrastructure systems must become resilient against climate change if they are to be sustainable. Owners, operators and investors need to have confidence that infrastructure can withstand and recover from the extreme weather that is becoming increasingly frequent, in a way that minimises disruption and repair costs and protects its performance. Users need to know that they can rely on the vital services these systems provide.

Organisations that fail to protect themselves, their customers and society from harm resulting from climate impacts are exposed to a rising level of financial and reputational risk. Conversely, those that build climate resilience will find opportunities: by withstanding, responding to and recovering rapidly from climate impacts, they will maintain operational continuity and strengthen their competitive edge.

And yet, investment in infrastructure resilience lags well behind what is needed. Part of the reason for this has been a lack of evidence about where and how to invest. But this is now changing, with tools and data available to help measure and manage risk.

In 2020 Mott MacDonald began working with the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI) to equip infrastructure owners and operators to demonstrate the benefit of investment in resilience.

The result is the Physical Climate Risk Assessment Methodology (PCRAM). It is an open-source resource created for the public good, to improve consistency in risk assessment and provide a common language between the infrastructure and financial industries.

PCRAM is the world’s first framework that brings together climate science, asset management, resilience practitioners and financiers to assess, design and quantify the resilience needs of infrastructure assets.

It can be used to identify material physical climate risks to an organisation’s assets and build resilience to improve performance and protect revenue. PCRAM helps decision-makers understand benefit-to-cost ratio, target investment, and plan programmes of investment that align with existing organisational and regulatory investment cycles.

PCRAM’s guidance documents have been published online and are freely available to download. Our hope is that the availability of this new methodology, and the ongoing activities of the CCRI legacy programme, will unlock the capital we need to deliver a resilient world.

Find out more: mottmac.com/pcram straight out’ mantra around the investments. “Connections between people are crucial and our people make our business what it is. We are hugely conscious of those that live in the communities that we serve – the millions of lives that we touch, in the real world, using real assets,” says Crossley.

Understanding what plans are made by authorities in key markets is the long-term hurdle for the Equitix people, as well as learning more about the ongoing market changes resulting from global economic and political shifts.

“The challenge we face across renewable power and environmental services is that all of this growth needs to be supported by appropriate regulations and subsidies from government,” states Wakefield. “The last