Insights

The past eight years have been the hottest in recorded history.  Despite achieving an historic breakthrough on a new “loss and damage” fund, COP27 failed to move the dial on reducing emissions. We are nowhere near the scale of change needed.  As the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres put it: “We are in the fight…

The Future We Want chaired by Professor Jillian Anable, Chair in Transport and Energy, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, focused on how we can create an inspiring greener vision for the future, which will help build the mandate for change and tough decisions for the long term. In opening the discussion, the Chair…

Hasta La Vista, Carbon! chaired by Stephen Glaister CBE, Emeritus Professor of Transport and Infrastructure at Imperial College London and Associate of the London School of Economics focused on how we can develop solutions to the cost of living crisis that will accelerate the transition to net zero and enhance our energy security. In closing…

Our climate is heating up at great speed.  China is experiencing the longest sustained heatwave and drought in its history.  Catastrophic flooding has left more than 1,300 people dead and a third of Pakistan under water.  Half of Europe is in drought.  Meanwhile, Putin is using the supply of gas to Europe as a weapon…

We must start by facing the truth. Government policy will not deliver net zero.  Nor will everything in our current arsenal of policies and measures. Achieving net zero carbon is a major national and global challenge, and one that cannot be met by any sector acting alone.  Global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by…

The IPCC have warned that it’s “now or never” if world is to stave off climate disaster.  We already look set to overshoot the 1.5C target. In carefully calibrated messaging, the IPCC’s latest report highlights the enormous scale of the challenge but that we have the tools and the knowhow required.  Lifestyle changes offer significant…

The latest IPCC report has been described as ‘an atlas of human suffering’. Climate impacts are worse than predicted.  Extreme weather events are accelerating. No region is safe. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future. The report’s publication last week would have…

Climate change is no longer a distant threat.  As we experience extreme weather events of increasing ferocity and frequency, we can hear its impacts knocking ever more loudly and insistently on our door. Have we heard the wake-up call?  COP26 was a partial success in that it kept the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. …

We are a group of leading professionals in the transport and planning sectors who together support the UK Government’s commitment to decarbonising our economy while sharing a deep concern that much greater urgency and action is needed to address the challenge society faces. Our focus is upon what we believe the Government must do if…

As I write the current fuel ‘crisis’ has seen forecourts up and down the country closed as supplies ran out in the wake of panic buying that saw long queues of drivers anxious to ensure that their tanks were full to the brim. Those queues were a stark visual reminder of the scale of our…

How does business and the workplace become carbon neutral by 2050? This is not a topic which is well covered. Last week, Addleshaw Goddard teamed up with Atkins to deliver a workshop on the responsibility and role of the workplace to cut carbon emissions. This was part of the online DecarboN8 conference which brought together…

The first page of the ‘place’ chapter in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan states “With strong local leadership and ambition these benefits [from greening transport] will be felt by everyone, everywhere. The government will continue to support such an approach through policy, regulation and guidance, and by encouraging strategic coordination and sharing of best practice across…