On Friday the 13th of January, the Mission Zero Report, the UK’s review for net zero, was published. The report was commissioned in October 2022 under Liz Truss’s Government, in order assess how businesses could work towards the UK Government’s legally binding 2050 net zero target, whilst also increasing economic growth opportunities.
The Mission Zero Report, was commissioned to assess how businesses could work towards the UK Government’s legally binding 2050 net zero target.
Within the review there are initiatives to encourage sustainability, such as eco-labelling, ‘prizes’ for sustainable practices, mentoring and advice, and more guidance for those wanting to upskill their green skills.
The review has recommended that the UK Government begins to put initiatives into place that will incentivise and disincentivise, in order for businesses to become more sustainable. Recommendations include grants for electric vehicles and taxing carbon.
The ‘Help to Grow Green’ scheme, recommended within the review, is to help SMEs to become more sustainable. 90% of UK businesses are SMEs and they are responsible for half of the UK’s non-domestic emissions. The review has recommended that the UK Government launch this scheme by 2024, in order to help SMEs access government grants and loans.
Many SMEs believe that they don’t have the financial stability to become sustainable, the review recommends that the UK Government looks into creating a new mentoring scheme.
The review states that there should be a new charter mark that will help companies to show their credibility whilst they are on their sustainable journeys.
The Net Zero review states that there is the potential for business rates to be lowered or to be at zero for businesses that have installed solar panels, wind turbines, low carbon heating systems and co-located battery energy storage.
Starting from 2025, the review states that the UK Government should be pushing for all non-domestic buildings to have an Energy Performance Certificate ‘B’ or above. This will therefore increase the efficiency of buildings in regards to energy and will make them more sustainable overall.
The review calls for an in-depth action plan to be put in place to help the UK Government to stick to its pledge of creating and supporting 2 million jobs by 2030. In recent years the government has not been doing enough to reach this target, with only 68,000 jobs being created since 2020, which have been crated with the help of the Green Jobs Taskforce.
In order for UK businesses to decarbonise their operations, the UK Government need to begin looking into and implementing procurement plans to produce low carbon industrial and construction materials.
The review states that worldwide, 39% of annual emissions could be lowered if we adopted a more circular approach to materials. Therefore, the review recommends that the UK Government put a taskforce in place to develop circular economy business models to increase recirculation.
