SWM News August 2017: BEIS national LEP low carbon study
Our Comment: Are we increasingly Fit for the Future?
You may remember SWM asking this question for the first time back in 2015. Fit for the Future was the first ever report analysing how each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in England was tackling climate change. Were they embracing the shift to a low carbon economy? Were they helping to decarbonise their businesses whilst making them more productive? Were they adapting to the impacts of extreme weather and climate change? The answers varied wildly across the country.
We‘ve recently secured funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to repeat the research, recognising our track record in national leadership and support to LEPs in developing a low carbon and sustainable future. Fit for the Future II will establish whether LEPs have progressed over the past two years.
This year, we’re also looking at city region and combined authority commitments to climate change and low carbon. Our findings will be brought together at a flagship national conference taking place in Birmingham on 17 October.
It’s increasingly clear that economic growth fits hand in glove with decarbonisation. The opportunities are plentiful – increasing GVA, better productivity, greater efficiency, skill development and jobs created. But what’s happening on the ground? The answer is hugely important in helping to understand how the government can support LEPs on the low carbon agenda, particularly post-Brexit. What is the most effective way to fund and deliver low carbon projects once incentives such as the European Regional Development Fund disappear?
It is time to show government that we need their support, both now and going forwards, to ensure that our economy, our infrastructure and our society is developed in a sustainable way and that it is, indeed, Fit for the Future.
Alan Carr, Sustainability Adviser, on behalf of the SWM team.
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