Sustainable Bristol

Leading Bristol’s Low Carbon Economy

Posted on 27 April 2011

The four Councils that make up the West of England (the Bristol bio-region) have long been taking collective leadership to develop the area’s low carbon economy, helping make Bristol a current leader in the UK for green jobs.

Last year, an opportunity arose for this West of England Partnership to collaborate with Forum for the Future to reassess planned actions, and to review appropriate leadership in tackling difficult climate change issues.

The UK has of course passed the world’s first long-term, legally binding legislation to tackle climate change. The Climate Change Act 2008 sets a legally binding target of at least an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and a reduction in emissions of at least 34% by 2020 (against a 1990 baseline). It also confers specific responsibilities on our Councils to adapt for the effects of climate change.

And the West of England is already a leading environmental technology centre, with the Partnership area home to over 300 world-class companies in renewable energy, waste management, recycling, energy control, sustainable transport, environmental consultancy and specialist services.

Much of the work of course falls to the four local Councils who make up the West of England, but the overarching role of the Partnership and, going forward, the area’s new Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) will be crucial to success in the common leadership needed between all four to create prosperous communities with good transport and growing green jobs.

The transition to a low carbon and resilient future provides significant economic opportunities which have the potential to play a key role in the economic recovery, resilience, competitive advantage and marketability of the West of England economy.

Though 2010, Forum for the Future’s founder director, Jonathon Porritt, led a series of workshops on leadership in tackling climate change with the Partnership’s Boards and the Joint Transport Executive Committee. 

These workshops enabled the Partnership to develop action plans specifically geared at addressing these issues, contained in a report – Collective Leadership for a Low Carbon Economy – which received the strong support of the Partnership Board at its meeting in February 2011.

This report, a key early reference document for the new LEP, sets out existing activities and initial action plans to guide activities at the West of England level which aim to:

• Decrease the energy intensity of the domestic, transport and business sectors.

• Accelerate the development of renewable and decentralised energy infrastructure.

• Stimulate growth in the Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services (LCEGS) Sector.

You can download a copy of the report Collective Leadership for a Low Carbon Economy here.