CIWM calls on Prime Minister to maintain net-zero commitments

CIWM has signed a joint letter alongside 14 other leading members of the Professional Bodies Action Charter, calling for the new Prime Minister to ‘maintain the UK’s commitment to delivering its net-zero by 2050 and adaptation targets’.

Addressed to Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch, the letter urges the Government to deliver a ‘strategic approach to net-zero’ – especially in light of the ‘acute risks’ that have been highlighted by the cost of living crisis and current heatwave.

The letter identifies the benefits of investing in the net-zero transition, prioritising action to combat climate change and building a green economy. For instance, the Net Zero Strategy and the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution previously supported the low-carbon renewables sector's growth in value ‘to over £200 billion, employing over 1.2 million people’.

According to the Professional Bodies Action Charter, delivering the Net Zero Strategy could create ‘440,000 well-paying jobs and unlock £90 billion in private investment by 2030’. By 2050, the letter says, the strategy has the capacity to ‘shield UK citizens from future price shocks, create homes that are warm and cheap to heat, and unlock private investment at scale for sustainable markets of tomorrow’.

Continued government commitment, however, is ‘essential for successful delivery’ of these opportunities nationwide.

The Charter’s letter also identifies the necessity for the Government to provide professionals with ‘a stable policy framework, guidance and training to align their sectors with net-zero and reap the opportunities granted by the global transition’.

This framework, it explains, is reliant on a wider economic transition to net-zero, across various sectors and across a range of policies – such as ‘strategic public investment’ and ‘clear market signals’.

The Professional Bodies Climate Action Charter represents 13 million professional members worldwide, across various sectors – from science and engineering, law, health, construction and the built environment, as well as finance and insurance.

Alongside CIWM, the members involved in signing the letter include the Society for the Environment (SocEnv), the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM).

Sarah Poulter, CEO of CIWM, commented: “The waste and resource management sector has a vital role to play in enabling the UK to meet its net zero commitment by 2050.

“Last year CIWM set out its own ambition to become a net-zero organisation and we will soon be launching a sector-wide strategy that will support our members on their journey towards Net Zero.”