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      Companies must commit to net-zero emissions before bidding for government contracts

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      Businesses will have to commit to the UK’s 2050 net-zero target before they can bid for major government contracts, under new rules announced on World Environment Day.Firms will also have to publish “credible” carbon reduction plans setting out their existing greenhouse gas emissions such as fuel usage, power consumption and staff travel.The Cabinet Office said the measures would be put in place by September for contracts worth more than £5m, making the UK government the first in the world to require such commitments.It comes as the UK prepares to host the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as Cop26, in Glasgow in November.“The government spends more than £290bn on procurement every year, so it’s important we use this purchasing power to help transform our economy to net-zero,” said the minister for efficiency and transformation, Lord Agnew of Oulton, in a statement.“Requiring companies to report and commit to reducing their carbon emissions before bidding for public work is a key part of our world leading approach. These measures will help green our economy, while not overly burdening businesses.”Carbon emissions will be reported using an internationally-recognised standard which categorises them under three groups or “scopes”.Scope 1 includes direct emissions from activities controlled by the business, such as fuel combustion in furnaces and vehicles or chemical production.Scope 2 relates to indirect emissions from consumption of purchased electricity, heat, steam or cooling, while scope 3 includes other indirect emissions from business travel, employee commuting, transportation, distribution and waste disposal.While some large companies already report scope 1 and 2 emissions, the new rules will also require some scope 3 emissions to be included as well.Firms failing to meet the requirements will be excluded from bidding for contracts worth more than £5m per year.The government said that the £5m cut-off was designed to “not overly burden and potentially exclude small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from bidding for government work”.The measures were welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents 190,000 firms employing nearly 7 million people.Tom Thackray, director of infrastructure and energy at the CBI said: “As the world looks towards the UK and Cop26 for leadership on decarbonisation, business is already playing a vital role in driving progress towards a greener future.”The CBI has long supported using procurement policy to ensure government spending supports the UK’s environmental objectives and these changes will encourage more firms across the country to demonstrate their own commitment to net zero when bidding for government contracts.”Partnership between the public and private sectors can make the UK a global role-model, not only in delivering vital public services but working together to tackle climate change.”The Business Services Association, which contributed to drawing up the new rules, said it was “another important step on the road to net zero”. More

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      Johnson failing to ‘measure up to scale of challenge’ of climate crisis, says Miliband

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      Ed Miliband has claimed ministers are “off track” to meet critical targets in achieving net zero, as he hit out at a government record failing “to measure up the scale of the challenge” faced by the climate crisis.Responding to an update on the proposed green industrial revolution — six months after Boris Johnson unveiled a 10-point plan — the Labour frontbencher said insisted the government is “good at self-congratulation but perhaps less good at self-awareness”.“There is wide gap between rhetoric and realty — key crucial areas not dealt with, the scale of finance not being delivered leading us to be off track on our targets,” he told MPs.Instead of the government’s “piecemeal” 10-point plan, the shadow business secretary said the country needed a “comprehensive green new deal with the scale of investment and commitment which meets the moment and the emergency”.Unveiling the proposals at the end of 2020, the prime minister announced a ban on new petrol and diesel car sales by 2030, a pledge to quadruple offshore winds, a £1 billion green homes grant to insulate homes, and the UK’s first hydrogen-powered town.Mr Miliband said the overall £12 billion in public funding promised under the 10-point plan was “still way short of the the of billions of public and private investment not over a decade but each and every year”.The business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, however, insisted the government’s plan was “radical and ambitious”, telling MPs: “We are already seeing this ambition being delivered on”.“The 10-point plan is projected to create and support up to 250,000 jobs to mobilise £12 billion of government investment and up three times as much from the private sector by 2030,” he insisted.Mr Kwarteng also said the UK broke a new wind power record two weeks’ ago with almost half of the country’s electricity being generated by wind power.“Last year we hit over two months of coal-free electricity generation – the longest streak since the Industrial Revolution – and two weeks ago we broke a new wind power record, with both onshore and offshore wind turbines generating 48.5% of the electricity in Great Britain.”He continued: “We will also publish our Transport Decarbonisation Plan as soon as possible, setting out an ambitious pathway to end the UK transport carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest – and I know that the transport secretary is fully engaged and fully committed to publishing this.“The impact of these commitments can already be seen. As of March 2021, battery electric vehicle sales stand at 7.7 per cent and plug-in hybrid electrical vehicles at 6.1 per cent of the market – that is a huge increase of 88 per cent and 152 per cent respectively from only a year ago.”The comments come ahead of a crucial climate summit — Cop26 — in Glasgow later this year, with a host of world leaders, which Mr Kwarteng suggested would  “a historic event”.He added: “And in this context, our ambition and our leadership is absolutely crucial. The 10-point plan demonstrates not only our commitment to this green recovery, but also to the kind of leadership we want to show in this vitally important year.“All of these actions bring us a step closer to net zero by 2050, meeting this planet’s greatest threat with ambition and innovation that is absolutely necessary if we are to hit our goals. More

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      Plan to treble tree-planting rates in England over next three years

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      The government will this week unveil plans to treble tree-planting rates in England by the end of this parliament.The initiative is part of a an effort to demonstrate commitment to restoring the national environment ahead of the United Nations COP26 conference being hosted by the UK in Glasgow in November.Setting out plans in a speech on Tuesday, the environment secretary, George Eustice, will point to February’s Dasgupta Review, which set out the role of biodiversity in economic growth.He is expected to say: “We are putting plans in place to treble woodland creation rates by the end of this parliament, reflecting England’s contribution to meeting the UK’s overall target of planting 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament.“We will make sure that the right trees are planted in the right places and that more green jobs are created in the forestry sector.”Looking back over the coronavirus pandemic of the past year, Mr Eustice will say: “The events of the last 12 months have led people to appreciate the difference that nature makes to our lives more than ever before.“There is an increased awareness of the link between our own health, and economic prosperity, and that of the planet – as highlighted by the recent Dasgupta Review of the economics of biodiversity.”In a speech outlining the government’s ambitions to create more woodlands, protect peatlands and boost biodiversity, Mr Eustice will say that increased tree-planting will form a central pillar in the UK’s efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.Under the new target, approximately 7,000 hectares of woodlands will be planted per year by May 2024, alongside new initiatives to improve the health of our trees, create more woodlands in cities, and deliver thousands of green jobs.An England Trees Action Plan will set out the ambition of continuing current planting trends for woodlands made up of mostly native broadleaf trees. More

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      Government introduces restrictions on sales of wet wood and coal to combat pollution

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      Sales of coal and wet wood for burning in the home will be phased out from today in England, as the government brings into force new restrictions to combat harmful pollutants.Forming part of the Clean Air Strategy, the plan to ultimately ban the purchase of the polluting fuels for domestic use was first announced by former prime minister Theresa May’s government almost three years ago.The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said the new restrictions will come into effect from today, with sales of bagged traditional house coal and wet wood in units under two cubic metres banned.The sale of wet wood in larger volumes will need to be sold with advice on how to dry while the sale of loose coal direct to customers via merchants will be phased out by 2023.Shops will also be required to use a new certification scheme to label products to ensure they can be easily identified by customers.Burning at home, particularly with coal or wet wood is, “a major source of the pollutant PM2.5 – tiny particles which can enter the bloodstream and lodge in lungs and other organs”, the department says.The government is not imposing an outright ban on the use of wood or coal-burning stoves but people will be required to buy “cleaner alternatives”, such as dry wood and manufactured solid fuels producing less smoke.It comes as the government faces scrutiny over the legally binding net zero target on emissions by 2050 and prior to a gathering of world leaders at the major climate summit, Cop26, in Glasgow later in the year.Rebecca Pow, the environment minister, said burning cleaner fuels was “a more efficient option for households across England, helping reduce our exposure to this incredibly harmful pollutant and benefiting the environment”.“This legislation marks the latest step in delivering on the challenges we set ourselves in our clean air strategy, making sure that both we and future generations can breathe cleaner air,” she added. “We know air pollution at a national level has reduced significantly since 2010 – with emissions on fine particulate matter down 11 per cent and nitrogen oxide 32 per cent – but there is still a huge amount to do to tackle pollution from all sources, including transport, agriculture, industry and domestic burning.”Labour’s shadow environment secretary, Luke Pollard, welcomed the news but warned it is “still not enough”, adding: “The government needs to go further on tackling air pollution. Labour would pass a Clean Air Act which would put World Health Organisation air quality standards into law.” More

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      Ministers accused of lacking ‘ambition necessary’ to decarbonise industry

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      Ministers have been accused of lacking the “ambition necessary” to decarbonise industry as the government outlined £1bn of spending to reduce emissions from businesses, hospitals and schools.It comes as Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, prepares to publish the government’s industrial decarbonisation strategy, including plans to move towards more green energy sources.Forming part of the government’s strategy to reach the legally-binding net zero target by 2050, officials said the funding – announced last year – will create thousands of jobs while cutting emissions by two-thirds over 15 years.Setting out how the £1bn will be spent, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said an initial £171m has been allocated to nine green tech projects in Scotland, south Wales and northern England to study the rollout of infrastructure such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).Local authorities across England were being allocated £932m to fund green upgrades to public buildings including schools, hospitals and council buildings in 429 projects across England. More

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      Extinction Rebellion protester arrested after climbing onto roof of Scottish parliament

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      The lone climate activist unfurled a banner reading “Climate Assembly, be bold” as part of a call for a more radical approach from Scotland’s Climate Assembly on Thursday morning.Police officers were waiting at the entrance of the Scottish Parliament and arrested the 61-year-old protester upon descent. The Climate Assembly, which was created as part of the 2019 Climate Change Act, has been accused of being “frightened of rocking the boat”. Extinction Rebellion, the radical climate activism group, said they were part of the assembly’s stewarding group but had pulled out. Justin Kenrick, a former member of the stewarding group, said: “There was never any evaluation of the seriousness of the climate emergency.“There was a lot of focus on being fair to different sectors in Scotland but not fairness to those elsewhere in the world suffering now or to future generations. To be fair in that fundamental way you have to first assess how serious the emergency is, and the assembly never collectively had the opportunity to do that.” More

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      Budget to launch ‘green bond’ to encourage investment in climate change technology

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      Savers who want to invest in protecting the environment are to be offered the opportunity to purchase the world’s first green savings bonds. The bonds, to be launched in Rishi Sunak’s Budget on Wednesday, will raise funds to invest in projects such as renewable energy and clean transport to support the government’s goal of the UK reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.The announcement will come alongside Mr Sunak unveiling in the 3 March statement reforms to the visa system to encourage high-skilled workers including researchers, engineers, scientists and tech experts to come to the UK.The new “elite” points-based routes will guarantee a visa for winners of international awards like the Nobel prizes and will allow highly-skilled migrants with a job offer from a fast-growth firm to qualify without the need for sponsorship or third-party endorsement.Mr Sunak said that the green savings bonds would help drive innovation in the technologies needed to reduce the UK’s reliance on greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels.“The UK is a global leader on tackling climate change, with a clear target to reach net zero by 2050 and a 10-point plan to create green jobs as we transition to a greener future,” he said.“In a world first, we’re launching a new green savings bond which will give people across the UK the opportunity to contribute to the collective effort to tackle climate change. More

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      Legal action begins against climate lawyer in Heathrow expansion row

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      Court proceedings have been launched against a climate charity lawyer for leaking a decision to expand Heathrow Airport.In December, shortly before the Supreme Court’s judgment was delivered giving the go-ahead to a third runway, Mr Crosland deliberately broke an embargo on the decision, making it public.He was referred to the attorney general for contempt of court, and now the solicitor general Michael Ellis has launched proceedings that could lead to his being sent to prison.Mr Crosland said he had no choice but to protest against “the deep immorality of the court’s ruling” when he broke the embargo. The Court of Appeal had initially blocked any Heathrow expansion, ruling that the government had acted unlawfully in failing to take into account the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global temperature rises to no more than 2C by limiting greenhouse gas emissions.But the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal decision.The government says the Supreme Court’s draft judgement was circulated to those involved on a confidential basis, and it was made clear that breaching the embargo might be treated as a contempt of court.Mr Crosland, a barrister, said he broke the court’s embargo as “an act of civil disobedience”.In an article forThe Independent, he wrote that had he not revealed the Heathrow decision early, he believed he would have been complicit in a “cover-up”. He claimed the Supreme Court ruling “concealed” that when the government approved Heathrow’s expansion, it relied on a “dangerous and discredited” climate target.But Mr Ellis said: “After careful consideration, I have concluded that in order that the rule of law be upheld, contempt of court proceedings should be brought against Tim Crosland.“Irrespective of any personal views on any issue, there is no excuse for knowingly undermining court processes and proceedings.”Mr Crosland has also accused the government of hypocrisy in approving Heathrow expansion while hosting climate talks, Cop26, later this year, when it will urge other countries to limit their carbon output.He said: “The government is doing three things. It’s claiming to be a climate leader ahead of Cop26.“It’s supervising the opening of a new coal mine, continuing to spend billions of taxpayer money on fossil-fuel developments overseas and progressing carbon-intensive projects such as investment in the roads, expansion of Heathrow and HS2; meanwhile it’s suggesting that those who call out this treasonous hypocrisy and stand up for the future of our young people, our country and vulnerable communities everywhere, should be treated as organised criminals.”The government and supporters of Heathrow expansion say it would create thousands of new jobs.“It’s the government’s primary responsibility to safeguard the lives of its citizens from threats too complex for us to address as individuals,” Mr Crosland said.Supreme Court judges are due to consider the contempt of court case. More