January 2025 saw a new US President and global leaders at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) facing each other off across a stormy North Atlantic with very different views on global warming and low carbon action. The rest of the world will face growing pressures to keep the Earth cool when America leaves the Paris climate agreement for a second time. However, there are other priorities nearer home.
Climate change, it is widely acknowledged, is a reality with three choices – adapt, abate, or suffer. Seen from Davos in Switzerland, adapting to – and where possible abating or minimising the impacts of – wildfires, floods, cyclones, sea level rises, and heavy storm impacts is the best way forward.
The prevailing WEF view has been that while the White House’s new hands-off, carbon business as usual approach (nattily summarised by the phrase ‘drill, baby, drill’) might be financially and politically tempting in the short-term, it makes long-term global suffering more inevitable for everyone. That fat is now in the fire!
The world waits …
President Trump – who addressed the Forum by video link and once criticised attending leaders as “prophets of doom” – has been more ambiguous recently, labelling himself as ‘an environmentalist’ keen to support the planting of ‘a trillion trees’.
But as a confirmed fossil-fuel supporter, he opposes wind power and the ‘windmills’ that are central to the UK’s clean green energy strategy and has given the UN an obligatory one-year notice of his executive decision to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement agreed in 2015 by 195 nations.
However, Associated Press says polling suggests that some 50% of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose his decision, and that “even Republicans aren’t overwhelmingly in favour”.
UK progress …
Fortunately, in the last decade the UK has more than halved its electricity generated from fossil fuels and doubled renewables output to make 2024 the cleanest year to date, with wind and solar reaching record high levels, according to Carbon Brief.
Fossil fuels, however, still generated 29% of the UK’s 2024 electricity. Renewables, including biomass and landfill gas, generated 45%. With nuclear added, low-carbon energy reached 58%. But CO2 pollution per unit of electricity generated fell to 124g per kWh (kilowatt hour), well down from 419g in 2014,
Unfortunately, economic growth priorities mean Government support for a proposed third runway at Heathrow and expansions at Gatwick and Luton airports even though opponents say it will cause ‘catastrophic’ environmental damage. The Government response is that all proposals must show they will contribute to economic growth and meet environmental commitments.
As 2025 unfolds …
The full implications of any new world carbon order should become clearer in the weeks and months ahead.
Meanwhile, WEF focused in the agenda for November 2025’s COP30 summit in Belem, Brazil, which with the Andes highlands and Amazon lowlands lies in a region very vulnerable to climate change.
A key COP30 goal – following on from 2024’s COP29, aka the “Finance COP” – will be agreeing rules for global carbon market credibility, and mobilising public and private climate finance.
Lancashire and UK focus …
But while the world gets used to working without a supportive USA; we have two other important priorities. The first is helping to create low carbon supply chains in the UK public sector, which we will look at in a moment.
The second is building on the green-tech successes won by members of our COP29 trade mission to Azerbaijan – including EV charge point system specialist AMP EV which is expanding rapidly in the UK’s public sector, again explained below.
Low carbon public sector supply chains …
Low carbon requirements are becoming more stringent for companies keen to sell into public sector organisations and local authority supply chains that include the NHS, colleges, and social enterprises.
The good news is that Chamber Low Carbon can help Northwest companies large and small – plus local authority and public sector procurement departments – to decarbonise their supply chains.
This involves moving from fossil fuels to renewables; reducing waste, leaks, and losses; joining the circular economy; using green-tech products and services wherever possible; and improving general efficiency and productivity to reduce Scope 3 emissions and carbon footprints.
Following initial audits, we are currently providing colleges at Burnley, Nelson and Colne, and Runshaw – plus Myerscough College – with carbon footprint reports and carbon reduction plans to help them on their individual pathways to net zero.
Similarly, we are supporting Lancashire GP surgeries, pharmacists, opticians, audiologists, and other specialists, who as limited companies and partners must meet their contractual low carbon obligations in the NHS supply chain. Our team is also working closely with Burnley Council and Rossendale Borough Council.
Procured goods and services can account for some 70% to 80% of local authority carbon footprints and growing numbers have tough 2030 low carbon targets in place (https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Local-Authorities-and-the-Sixth-Carbon-Budget.pdf).
Small but beautiful …
Social enterprises – with a primary goal of promoting social or environmental welfare rather than just maximising profits – also provide solutions that need to be financially, socially and environmentally sustainable. They too need low carbon supply chains to save substantial amounts of money.
If you would like more information about Chamber Low Carbon services, please contact us by calling 01254 346 487, or emailing info@chamberlowcarbon.co.uk.
AMP EV signed a significant MOU at COP29 …
Our November 2024 trade mission to COP29 in Azerbaijan was led by the Chamber’s Director of Sustainability, Stephen Sykes and East Lancs Chamber and RedCAT CEO Prof. Miranda Barker OBE DL
As a mission member, Carbonbit Technologies was able to sign a £10 million memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC) for the further development and commercialisation of its innovative carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology.
Another successful company was West Lancashire-based AMP EV. which designs, supplies, installs and maintains electric vehicle (EV) public charge points across the UK.
On the strength of AMP EV’s innovation, MD Alasdair Croft also had meetings with AIC which sees the UK’s rapidly expanding public EV charge point sector as an attractive business opportunity.
The aim, through AIC, is to provide extra funding needed to roll out charge point networks for UK local authorities, colleges, the NHS, and blue light services – filling the gap the hard-pressed Chancellor is not able to close.
The gain for AIC – which like Dubai which hosted COP28 is a sovereign investor – is an opportunity to diversify its petrochemical-dollars into something other than tourism. The ROI could be substantial.
What is innovation? …
But all may not be as it first seems. AMP EV holds no IP – one definition of innovation. It designs, installs, maintains & operates bespoke public sector EV charging networks but is not tied to any individual product or manufacture.
What it does do via their software platform and suite of supporting services is provide continuous monitoring plus end-user feedback direct to manufacturers. The innovative element recognised by AIC is that feedback is vital because the sector’s technology is evolving so quickly.
However, AMP EV also collects revenues from the charger end-users. This is where AIC expects to make attractive returns over many years.
AMP EV development …
Alasdair and his partners formed the company in 2017 to install domestic chargers. When that became a financial ‘race to the bottom’ he saw growing public sector opportunities. 2025 will see the 1,000th charger installed on AMP EV’s software platform. Revenue by 2030 is projected at £6 million.
Helping hands …
“Wonderful things happened in Lancashire,” he says, attributing much of the firm’s recent success to the East Lancs Chamber and RedCAT – which will be the driver taking AMP EV ‘up to the next level’ – plus marketing support from SHOUT and a growth and scale programme from BOOST.
“Miranda organised extra funding for us even though we are not in the East Lancs Chamber’s area. She also arranged for us to be one of three companies put forward to AIC at COP29,” he adds.
Installations across England could increase rapidly this year with councils given £381 million under the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (Levi) fund to help close network gaps that frustrate the car industry which under the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate must sell more EVs each year.
Ironically, the AMP EV team wondered if they could spare the time to go to COP29. Their decision to attend has paid back in spades.
Where real change may be needed …
Whichever side of the fence the final arguments eventually fall, the global climate fight needs fundamental reform because ‘… some states are not acting in good faith’, says UN special rapporteur on climate change, Elisa Morgera. She adds that the consensus-based, state-driven status quo is ‘ineffective’ and that ‘deep, systemic inequalities’ must be removed for future COPs to be successful.
The international effort has become mired by misinformation and bad faith actors, she argues, and must be fundamentally reformed to stop ‘powerful forces’ pushing false narratives and ‘tech fixes’ that divert attention from real, equitable solutions for countries least responsible and most affected.
The UK – the ‘second most attractive country for investment’ …
More encouraging news announced at the start of WEF from a PwC survey of almost 5,000 chief executives in 109 countries is that the UK – despite recent economic doom and gloom – has climbed four places since last year to become the second most attractive global destination for investment, ahead of China, Germany and India, its highest ranking in 28 years. The first is, of course, the US.
A senior PwC UK partner explain that ‘The UK’s relative stability at a time of instability should not be underestimated, nor should its strength in key sectors including technology’. But added that there is no room for complacency.
Earlier in January, the International Monetary Fund upgraded its UK growth forecast for 2025 to 1.6% from an earlier 1.5%, driven by the ‘Government’s increased investment spending, better household finances and a series of anticipated Bank of England interest rate cuts’.
2024 passed the critical 1.5°C milestone …
A less welcome report shows Earth experienced its hottest year on record, with hundreds of people killed by extreme flooding in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a year-long drought that left Amazon river levels at an all-time low, and the Acropolis in Athens closed during afternoons to protect tourists from dangerous heat (https://climate.copernicus.eu/global-climate-highlights)
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed 2024 was the first year on record with a global average temperature more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – all continents except Australasia and Antarctica experienced their hottest temperatures over 11 months of the year.
The previous hottest was 2023 – all ten of the hottest years have been in the last decade. However, 2024 was the first time a full calendar year exceeded the 1.5°C threshold.
AI and sewage – a return of ‘The Great Stink’? …
The Government also wants artificial intelligence to be “mainlined into the veins” of the UK via a multibillion-pound investment to increase AI computing power under public control 20-fold by 2030.
However, this is unlikely to end a growing problem inherited from Victorian-built sewerage systems that were not designed for heavy rainfall in a warmer climate …
… with unpleasant implications for public health, water quality, and urban living!
