COP26

GOOD COP, BAD COP

In the build-up to November’s climate conference in Glasgow, we talked to members of the Homerton community working on finding sustainable solutions.

Liam Cawthorne: Building a career around climate

Alumnus Liam Cawthorne (BA Geography 2014) has been interested in the challenges of climate change since watching Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth as a child. As an undergraduate studying Geography at Homerton, he focused his final year dissertation on the impact that climate change is having on winter tourism in the Swiss Alps.

“You’ve got whole communities that are dependent on the winter weather for tourism and the infrastructure set up to service it, and I was interested in how they are responding to not being able to rely on favourable snow conditions.”

After graduating, he took some time out to work in Switzerland, before completing an MSc in Climate Change, Management and Finance at Imperial College, London.

“It’s a very new course – we were only the third intake. Climate change has really picked up in the public discourse over the past few years, and government, industry and the private sector are really realising that they need to respond.”

The course brought together graduates from a range of academic backgrounds, including Economics, Geography and Natural Sciences, providing a useful diversity of perspectives. Despite the disruption to the course itself caused by the pandemic, Liam believes that the sector has taken inspiration from the example of COVID to demonstrate that big global changes can be tackled when we really need to.

“When COVID hit, jobs in sustainability and renewable energy grew. Everyone in my course found a job soon after finishing.”

An internship at Ikigai Capital has expanded into a full-time role as Junior Associate at the consultancy, which works with investors, large energy consumers and operators in the energy sector. Founded in 2017, the company combines consultancy, funding and co-development expertise in support of decarbonisation projects, acting also as a clean technology accelerator, supporting companies to scale up and deploy their solutions.

Liam is currently working on the investment plan for the decarbonisation of Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, an area whose concentration of industry currently consumes around 5% of the UK’s energy. He is also involved in Ikigai’s work to deliver a Hydrogen Investment Strategy for the Thames Estuary.

“I’ve always been pragmatic in my approach to climate change,” he says. “It’s a difficult task and there are lots of challenges to overcome, but you should only worry about the outcomes that are in your control. It’s very exciting to see the response to climate change picking up the pace.”

Following the conference Liam said: “A positive result from COP26 is the agreement reached to cut down methane emissions, whose contribution to global warming is often underrated. However, overall, disappointing results: there is still no accountability on pledges to cut down emissions, language tweaking to ‘phase down’ rather than ‘phase out’ on coal, key emitters setting net zero targets for 2070 (well beyond 2050), no global alignment on carbon pricing – all of this signals we are very far from hitting 2°C. I would expect more global leadership from global leaders at future COP events.”

Dr Elsa Lee: An environmental education

Dr Elsa Lee spent 10 years as a secondary school science teacher in the UK and Mexico. But, having originally been drawn to science herself because of her passion for the environment, she became frustrated by the lack of opportunity to explore sustainability within the curriculum.

“Science and Geography in England (and elsewhere) do cover climate change and other environmental matters, but it’s very disjointed,” she says now. “There’s not much recognition of the importance of the social aspects of environmental degradation: the way that the problems we are encountering are intersectional and largely an outcome of our social and economic activity is somehow lost in the emphasis on the science of it all.”

After undertaking a Masters in Environmental Education, and a PhD exploring how young people learn to become active citizens through working on environmental problems, both at the University of Bath, Elsa joined the Faculty of Education as a Research Associate, becoming a Bye-Fellow at Homerton. She now leads a multi-stranded, inter-disciplinary academic career, focused on environmental sustainability education.

Recently, this has included acting as Principal Investigator of an ESRC funded study called Connecting Water to Global Citizenship via Education for Sustainable Development, a project working with young people to regenerate waterways in England and South Africa, and explore how this kind of activity supports young people’s sense of being part of a global community.

Elsa also works as a part-time Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, where she has investigated how children and artists working together in natural outdoor spaces can influence wellbeing. She recently sat on the advisory board for the development of the Natural History GCSE. However, despite her concern that climate change and sustainability should be interwoven into the curriculum, she is resistant to suggestions that children themselves hold the solution to the environmental crisis.

“So many people turn to schools to solve social problems, in the hopes that the next generation will come to the rescue. But these problems have to be solved now, by adults. Children deserve an education that enables them, when they’re ready, to contribute. But eco-anxiety can be overwhelming, even for adults, so we need to be extremely cautious about burdening children with knowledge about problems they have very little power to effect change over.”

In higher education, however, Elsa believes that more can be done to integrate the principles of environmental sustainability education across all disciplines. She is currently working on plans for a training module for Homerton academics, to support them in applying these approaches in their own subjects, and hopes to launch a pilot programme next year.

As COP26 draws closer, Elsa acknowledges that “lots of people who’ve been working in this field feel a bit cynical about these high level intergovernmental processes.” However, her hope is that, regardless of what is agreed at the conference itself, it will provide the impetus for action at the grass roots level by amplifying the conversation around climate.

“Over the past five decades these conferences have been the source of very significant policy developments and intergovernmental cooperation and collaboration. Alongside that they provide focus and energy for a lot of things to happen around them. We need to harness as much of that energy as we can to contribute to the intensifying efforts that are being made at local, national and international levels, to effect positive change in this area, and to give children a sense that we are all working together on these issues that are of immense importance to us all.”

Following the conference Elsa said: “I loved watching young people have an opportunity to engage and participate. The meeting of education ministers was also very exciting, and I am looking forward to seeing how the proposals for a Duke of Edinburgh style award for schools and children works out. When we engage young people in these sorts of initiatives we give them a voice, and that is so important, but now they need to know that they have been heard. That relies on actions being taken that address their concerns, and validate their participation so I look forward to watching the impacts unfold.” Craig Bennett: A very sustainable Fellow

When Craig Bennett was 16, his careers advisor asked him whether he had any idea what he wanted to do with his life. Unusually for a teenager, he was absolutely clear.

“I told him I wanted to be an environmental campaigner. But that didn’t appear on his list, so he put down the code for school career advisor instead.”

That clarity of focus, which had developed over a 1980s adolescence filled with concern about CFCs and setting up a Green Group at school, has never faded. He studied Geography at Reading University before completing an MSc in Conservation at UCL and began his career by volunteering for an environmental NGO. After eight years as a Campaigner at Friends of the Earth and three as Deputy Director at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership, he went back to Friends of the Earth, first as Director of Policy and Campaigns, and then as Chief Executive, before taking up his current role running The Wildlife Trusts last year.

“The Wildlife Trusts felt like the perfect next step,” he says. “I’m frustrated by the way that climate change and biodiversity get talked about so separately – you can’t solve one without the other. They’re both part of the same problem,

which is that humanity needs to learn to live fairly within environmental limits.”

The Wildlife Trusts brings together 46 local trusts dedicated to restoring nature and bringing people closer to the natural world. Craig sees this grassroots approach as a crucial factor in encouraging wider participation.

“If you want to bring about big change it has to happen at a local level, within local communities. It’s a very powerful model for achieving scale.”

The Wildlife Trusts’ headline ambition is to return one third of the UK’s land and sea to nature by 2030, an aim which Craig describes as “completely achievable.”

“We have more nature reserves in this country than branches of McDonald’s – by more than a thousand! We’re brilliantly placed to mobilise change. That means connecting existing reserves by creating wildlife corridors, but it also means making sure that we make more space for nature when new development happens, like at the Trumpington Meadows site in Cambridge, where new housing development was coupled with the creation of a brand new nature reserve. It also means that, if agriculture is going to be subsidised, it should be supported to protect nature. Over the past 50 years 41% of British species have declined. We need to not just halt that trend, but completely reverse it. Our vision is to see an increase in all those species by 2030.”

As the human impact on the environment becomes ever more disturbingly apparent, it’s easy for people to feel powerless in responding to it. But Craig sees The Wildlife Trusts as a way for people to connect, tangibly and locally, with a powerful collective effort. He is championing the concept of ‘Team Wilder’, supporting groups of people to take action which makes sense to them, and also plans to build up the organisation’s youth movement, including creating youth positions on its board.

“Solutions need different perspectives,” he says. “To have conversations about the future of the planet without involving young people would be a bit odd.”

He recognises that the scale of the sustainability challenge can be overwhelming, but emphasises the impact of small changes.

“The important thing is to take action and do something. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Try to reduce your meat consumption, don’t fly so often, etc. I don’t think we should be flying domestically within the UK, but actually I’m not sure high-speed rail is the answer either. We should be investing in high speed broadband, and rethinking how much domestic work travel is needed. And we should be thinking about comfort rather than speed when it comes to trains. A long train journey with decent WiFi and a comfy seat is a wonderful thing.”

Professor Greg Clark: Two weeks on the Clyde

Glasgow in November is not always balmy. For most of the two weeks of COP26 the skies were clear and dry, mirroring both the warmth of the welcome of the UK’s friendliest city, and the serious agenda that was under discussion. Warming is a complex word. A veneer of comfort laced with a hideous threat.

For those, like me, who were in Glasgow for the summit, the balance sheet reads clearly. Progress was made on important agendas: methane, deforestation, the global financial system,

national transparency, and measurability. There was progress in the revived US-China dialogue, a clear commitment from India with an ambitious next decade, and simply superb evidence from the community of scientists, ecologists, economists, and behaviouralists. In addition to this, at COP26, there was a swarm of technology innovations in renewable energy production, carbon capture and storage, circular economy, food production and agritech, nature-based solutions, construction processes, mobility systems, battery storage, smart digital platforms, and waste reduction. One of the conversations I had was with a Japanese vet who is a world leader on reducing flatulence in cattle!

But there were also glaring gaps. The absence of Russia and China represented at the highest level was much discussed in the first week, though China was very visible in all dialogues. The absence of any serious discussion of carbon pricing and taxing which many believe is critical to tip the balance of incentives towards models that fully capture the planetary cost of all options. The hesitancy, by China and India, to agree a wording that commits to the elimination of coal as a fuel. The lack of a full commitment to pay for the loss and damage for those countries most impacted by existing and already unavoidable effects. For many, the stark conclusion is that the 1.5 target is just barely alive, and only if everything else comes good quickly. The risk is that 1.5, 2.0, and even 2.5 degrees of global warming are unleashed with all the consequences for habitat devastation, biodiversity loss, and climate refugees they will bring. The stakes are the highest they could be.

I was at COP as Chair of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, a collaboration platform between cities and financial institutions, with business and Government, aimed at accelerating net zero investing in our urban systems. Cities have a special role in the climate emergency. They are the concentrations of population and the hubs of infrastructure and commerce. Cities produce high levels of CO2, but well-run cities that invest in their carrying capacity can be environmentally efficient compared to other forms of settlement. Cities are also key victims of global warming. Five hundred cities are at risk of flooding if we exceed the 1.5 degrees that would bring a 0.5m rise in sea levels. If we have 10 billion people on our planet, the only way to house them effectively is well-run low-carbon cities.

We must manage de-carbonisation in a better way than we mismanaged de-industrialisation. Our cities know that deeply. The NetZero City will be a healthier, more affordable, innovative, job rich, and fairer city, IF we can sequence together the de-carbonisation path with remodelling and reinvesting. We can focus now on proactive transformation to achieve better connected, more compact, and cleaner cities, underpinned by electrification, circularity, reformed land uses, green innovation, revised consumer choices, citizen empowerment, and cost/benefit fairness for just transition. This will ensure positive outcomes for people through healthier and more affordable homes, lower fuels bills, improved nutrition, wider transport options, and a long cycle of new green job creation. The net zero city is not just an environmental goal, it is the path to better connected places and rewarding lives.

Professor Greg Clark CBE FAcSS is Group Advisor at HSBC, Chair of the Connected Places Catapult and a Board member of Transport For London and the London LEP. He is a Civic Leader, writer, NonExecutive Director and Board Chair, who works with Businesses, Governments, and Cities to help navigate this disrupted century, inspire new collaborations, and forge new futures n