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Category: Zero Carbon Britain

From Awareness to Action: How CAT Helped Lyreco Embed Sustainability Across Its Operations

At the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), we believe that sustainability training should go beyond awareness – it should empower people to take meaningful action. When national office supply company Lyreco approached CAT to support the development of sustainability understanding within its supply chain team, the goal was clear: to embed sustainability into everyday decision-making and operations.

Through a hands-on, immersive training experience, CAT helped participants move from surface-level knowledge to confident, practical application, resulting in real-world changes across sites, systems, and leadership.

We caught up with Jake Jones, Lyreco’s Quality Safety and Sustainability Coordinator to find out about how CAT’s approach helped spark transformation, empower individuals and influence long-term strategy.

Building Foundations for Change

Many of the participants in the training had long careers within the company, often starting in junior roles and progressing over decades. As Jake Jones explained:

“We have a lot of employees who started here when they were 16… and as part of that career progression, people need to have the advanced level of training.”

The organisation recognised that sustainability needed to be more than a corporate value – it had to be embedded in how people think and work. CAT’s training provided a structured, hands-on way to do just that.

“[We] understand sustainability as a staple piece – not only because it’s what customers want, but it’s also what we should be doing.”

CAT’s training combines systems thinking, practical workshops, and real-world examples to help participants understand the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. This approach helps people connect abstract concepts to their own work and responsibilities.

Choosing the Right People to Lead Change

The organisation was strategic in selecting participants, choosing individuals who were either already in influential roles or who had shown a desire to grow and lead.

“The individuals were selected in regards to impact… their angle of change. Some people are happy to not make any change… others want progression.”

This approach aligns with CAT’s philosophy that sustainability champions within organisations can be powerful agents of change. By equipping the right people with knowledge and confidence, the training can ripple outward, affecting teams, departments, and policy.

From Awareness to Understanding

One of the most striking outcomes of the training was the shift from passive awareness to active understanding. As Jake described:

“They could tell you that climate change was bad. They couldn’t tell you why… CAT gave them the foundations to those principles, which then gave the whole point meaning.”

This is a core aim of CAT’s training – to help participants understand the science, systems and social context behind sustainability challenges.

The training also used inclusive facilitation techniques to ensure everyone could participate meaningfully:

“The splitting of groups allowed the quieter ones in the group to have more of a voice and get more engaged… Overall your teaching styles helped get the message across.”

By combining group work, site tours, and interactive sessions, CAT created an environment where participants could explore ideas, ask questions, and connect learning to their own roles.

Translating Learning into Action

The impact of the training was quickly visible in operational changes. Sustainability became a regular part of internal meetings and continuous improvement processes:

“Sustainability is now an element of PD meetings… We used to do things called Gemba walks… now sustainability and community engagement and health and safety are looked at the same time.”

One example involved reducing unnecessary plastic packaging:

“If we remove the plastic lining on this pallet… we’re not producing as much plastic waste. There doesn’t need to be a plastic lining there.”

Though changes are small, they show how sustainability can be embedded into everyday decisions, not just high-level strategy.

Importantly, the training also helped elevate sustainability within leadership:

“Some of the individuals have already now been promoted into higher level management roles… You’ve now got individuals who’ve got that sustainability at higher positions than before.”

This is a key marker of success: when sustainability-trained staff move into roles where they can influence policy, budgets and culture.

Energy Efficiency

One participant applied the training directly to energy use across the organisation’s sites. Rather than conducting lengthy audits, he took decisive action:

“Instead of auditing what resources we’ve got, he’s just basically gone and removed gas if needs be… There’s no need for a fossil fuel, right? That’s the logic.”

This led to practical changes, such as switching to electric heating and tailoring energy use to actual need:

“There’s only two people in the site for the entire day… so they’ve just been given an electric heater between the two.”

The organisation also achieved ISO 50001 certification for energy management:

“Since then, we’ve also been certified to now ISO 50001… that’s also driving the change on his sort of project.”

These outcomes show how CAT’s training can support not just individual learning, but strategic, organisation-wide change.

Sustaining the Momentum

The organisation plans to continue the training programme, using CAT’s model to support future cohorts:

“The aim is to do this every few years… with individuals who have shown promise, want to do more, and are all about skilling them, giving them those sustainability skills.”

This kind of long-term thinking is essential. Sustainability isn’t a one-off intervention, it’s a continuous process of learning, reflection and improvement. CAT’s training is designed to support that journey.

CAT’s training helped participants move from passive awareness to active engagement—embedding sustainability into their roles, influencing operational decisions, and shaping future leadership. As Jake Jones reflected:

“It sits in the back of their mind now… it comes out and it’s seen and it’s shown from time to time in different projects.”

CAT’s work with Lyreco shows how training can spark lasting change – helping organisations turn sustainability from a value into a practice.

Find out more

To find out more about CAT’ training offer or to enquire about booking some training with the team, please visit www.cat.org.uk.

December 19, 2025
COP30 – the Action COP?
The agreement reached at COP30 was nowhere near enough, but not a total disaster. Paul Allen from our Zero Carbon Britain Team shares his reflections on the key issues of COP30 and what is needed next.

Joining online as an official observer, I followed the negotiations and the wide range of events run by the nations, networks and groups which assembled in Belém, Brazil over two weeks in November.

COP30 Brasil – DOERS/Shutterstock.com

Background to COP30

The Conference of the Parties or COP negotiations are rooted in the Rio Earth Summit and for the past three decades have brought countries from across the globe together to try to solve the earth’s human induced challenges and deal with their impacts. The key element of this process is that by the end of each year’s negotiations, a consensus much be achieved on the final texts, with all parties signing up to it. After many years of underachieving, the landmark COP21 in Paris agreed that the world would aim to limit global heating to well under 2°C from preindustrial levels and aim for 1.5°C.

Under the Paris Agreement, each of the 195 countries must increase their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to emissions reduction on a 5-year ratchet mechanism. As COP30 marks the second ratchet, by the opening 118 out of 195 countries had offered a new NDC, but together what they offer was nowhere near enough. (NDC Tracker, Climate Watch)

Another key element of COP30 was the global stocktake. This recognised that the Paris Agreement has driven progress on climate action, but not yet enough to put the world on track to remain well under 2°C or achieve necessary levels of resilience and mobilize and align necessary financial flows. (NDC 3.0, UNFCC)

So, as the world came together in Belem, the key task to deliver on Paris was to improve the number and ambition of NDC’s, whilst also increasing resources to help countries deal with the rising impacts of extreme weather through adaptation and the global loss and damage fund.

President Lula of Brazil speaking at COP30 – Antonio Scorza/Shutterstock.com

What did COP 30 achieve?

In the run up to each COP the UNEP releases its annual “Emissions Gap Report”. This year it was titled ‘Off Target’ making it clear that we are on course for an escalation of climate risks and damages. (Emission Gap Report 2025, UNEP)

A key element of COP30 was rise of Indigenous voices. Through protests, marches and a raised profile in media coverage they made it clear that they should have a voice in the negotiations, and a great many do not have rights to access the negotiation halls. Currently Indigenous land is around 13.8% of Brazil, however following the protests during COP30 they announced 10 new indigenous territories following the 11 announced last year. (BBC News)

Drawing on their culture, the Brazilian presidency invited the world to join a “Mutirão” This was a continuous method of mobilization that remains active beyond COP30. A proposal to transform the conference into a true milestone of civilizational turn: the establishment of spaces for active listening, strengthening the ties between the local and the global, and valuing the diversity of voices and knowledge. A whole more potent than the sum of all parts.

Protest at COP30 – Antonio Scorza/Shutterstock.com

An important element of COP 30 was the launch of The Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change; this offers international commitments to combat climate misinformation and promote accurate climate information. At the launch, the declaration was endorsed by twelve countries, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

As usual, COP30 closed with a long all night overrun into Saturday morning, driven by a dispute on wording used. The talks avoided collapse, and a deal was finally agreed by 194 countries to keep the process alive. The UN website offered these commitments:
- Finance at scale: Mobilise $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for climate action.
- Adaptation boost: Double adaptation finance by 2025 and triple by 2035.
- Loss and damage fund: Operationalisation and replenishment cycles confirmed.
- New initiatives: Launch of the Global Implementation Accelerator and Belém Mission to 1.5°C to drive ambition and implementation.
- Climate disinformation: Commitment to promote information integrity and counter false narratives.
Expectations were high that COP30’s final decision would include explicit reference to phasing out fossil fuels. More than 80 countries backed Brazil’s proposal for a formal ‘roadmap.’ A draft text had included it – until the final hours of talks. The adopted outcome refers only to the ‘UAE Consensus’, the COP28 decision calling for “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”

COP30 was nowhere near enough, but not a total disaster. It will speed things up, but time is clearly running out.

What needs to happen after COP30?

We are at the crossroads of emergency and opportunity, and what we do next will define the future we face. As a trained engineer, it is clear to me that if a system is not working, we must fix it. The UNFCCC needs to recognize its top-down process is not delivering and initiate global workshops to transform the ‘negotiation process’ in advance of COP31. This must include:
- proactive inclusion of indigenous voices from all countries,
- making it clear who are negotiators and who are lobbyists,
- rescheduling the program so key decisions are not made during an over-run
- better link up negotiations across silos to help in multi-solving the switch from fossil fuels while restoring natural systems and preparing for climate impacts.
Belém was the first climate conference to happen since the International Court of Justice confirmed that governments and corporations have legal duties to protect people and the planet from climate harm. ClientEarth is exploring how legal power can fight greenwashing and push for stronger, enforceable climate laws.

Future negotiations should also begin rooted in an honest recognition of the numbers on what needs to be achieved by when, with global wellbeing at the heart of the necessary transformation. In his book A Climate of Truth, presented at a recent public lecture at CAT, Mike Berners-Lee made a clear case that the most critical step is to raise honesty in our local, national and international politics including the COP process. Mike highlights the need for honesty “Each of us can have radically more impact on the issues we care about by turning our attention to this simple principal”. The Planetary Science Pavilion at COP30 released an honest statement that the remaining carbon budget is now equivalent to 3-4 years of global emissions at current rate. This should be a key message in opening negotiations at COP31.

The UN process needs to offer much increased support for actions from communities across the globe. We have the tools, technologies, responsible business models, research and motivation. Building on the Mutirão model, we need to enable active groups to share ideas across the globe, catalysing an acceleration of citizen driven actions.

We have the solutions, but skills and training are needed to support the transition. CAT is proud to be part of a growing ecosystem of organisations offering the courses and training opportunities needed to accelerate this transformation.

About the author

Paul is CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Knowledge and Outreach Coordinator. He has been involved with our research into zero carbon scenarios since the beginning, coordinating the development of research reports and liaising directly with government, industry, NGOs and the arts to share findings.

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November 24, 2025
Inspiring, informing and enabling Green Careers at CAT
This Green Careers Week, we’re celebrating how CAT inspires, informs and enables impactful green careers.

As the climate and biodiversity emergency continues to shape our world, the need for skilled, passionate people in green careers has never been greater. This Green Careers Week, we’re exploring how the CAT helps people find their path into meaningful work that supports a sustainable future.

From sparking inspiration in young minds to equipping professionals with innovative skills, CAT’s work is rooted in a powerful mission to inspire, inform and enable humanity to respond to the climate crisis. For more than five decades, CAT has been a place where people come to explore bold ideas, launch meaningful careers, and connect with others working toward a more sustainable future

Inspire: Planting Seeds and New Ideas

Inspiration is often the first step toward a green career. At CAT, it begins the moment someone steps onto the site. Nestled in the UNESCO Dyfi Biosphere Reserve in the hills of Mid Wales, CAT’s immersive natural setting is a living example of sustainable living in action set in a stunning wooded valley.

Visitors frequently describe the experience as transformative. Teacher John Ridler from Queen Mary’s Grammar School in Walsall explains that while many students arrive with ambitions to pursue medicine, visits to CAT often broaden their horizons.

“A lot of our pupils come in thinking medicine is their likely path. But experiences like this inspire them to consider engineering – something they might never have thought was for them.”

John Ridler, teacher at Queen Mary’s Grammar School

Queen Mary’s now sees 15–20 students a year inspired to go on to study engineering at university.

Dr Dai Morgan, longstanding lecturer at the University of Cambridge, brings his group to CAT every year. Dai believes that the experience at CAT is a poignant moment of inspiration for his students.

“CAT offers something unique. It’s immersive and integrative-a real example of sustainability being worked out in real time. Being in that environment, around people who are doing things differently and showing what’s possible, creates space to reflect and reconnect with what really matters.”

Dr Dai Morgan, Lecture at the University of Cambridge

This sense of connection to nature, to community, and to purpose, is echoed in feedback from many young people’s visits. They describe the feeling of being “part of nature” during their time at CAT. That feeling makes them want to protect it.

CAT is more than a learning centre – it’s a community hub, a hive of action where people from all walks of life come together to imagine and create a sustainable future. Whether it’s a school group exploring renewable energy, a youth panel shaping climate action, or a volunteer discovering their passion, CAT helps people see themselves as part of the solution.

Inform: Developing Skills for a Sustainable Future

Inspiration is powerful, but it’s only the beginning. To turn passion into impact, people need knowledge, skills and confidence. That’s where CAT’s educational programmes come in.

CAT’s Graduate School of the Environment offers postgraduate degrees that blend academia with practical learning. Studying on one of seven postgraduate degrees helps students gain knowledge and networks to make a real difference in their chosen specialisms as they go on to have long and impactful green careers.

To date, over 2500 people have completed postgraduate awards at CAT. Students have gone on to make a real difference through a wide variety of careers and opportunities, from architecture and energy management to environmental policy and land management.

Graduates have gone on to launch innovative companies, lead sustainability initiatives, and shape policy across the UK and beyond. Their success stories are a testament to the power of education rooted in real-world application.

Clara Humphries came to CAT to study how she could integrate green building principles into real-world projects and now works as a Retrofit Project Manager at Retrofit West, where she applies the knowledge she learned studying at CAT daily.

“CAT gave me the hope and motivation to tackle complex climate challenges“

Clara Humphries, Graduate of our MSc in Green Building and Retrofit Project Manager

But CAT’s commitment to green careers goes far beyond higher education. Through our short courses, CAT provides hands-on training in everything from green building and renewable energy to woodland management and organic gardening. These courses are open to learners aged 16 and above and increasingly integrate with the Graduate School’s academic modules, creating a pathway from interest to expertise.

CAT also supports volunteers, many of whom describe their time at CAT as life-changing. CAT’s cohorts of 6-month residential volunteers not only work in practical roles managing CAT’s gardens and woodlands, they also undertake various training courses to equip them with essential skills for careers in land management. Through the training, mentorship and valuable experience gained during their time living and working with the CAT community, volunteers gain the confidence and skills to enter green careers, often discovering new passions along the way.

Ella Catherall, who recently finished 6 months of volunteering in CAT’s garden team, has been able to take the next steps in her Green Career thanks to the skills she learned at CAT. She is now embarking on a placement with the Adam Greathead Trust, where she will spend a year training in two renowned UK gardens.

People in careers that aren’t traditionally seen as ‘green’ can become climate leaders too! One of CAT’s most impactful offerings is Carbon Literacy Training, which equips individuals with the tools to become climate leaders in their workplaces and communities. Whether you’re a teacher, builder, policymaker or student, CAT helps you understand the science, communicate the urgency, and take meaningful action.

Engagement with young people remains central to CAT’s mission. The organisation provides curriculum-linked workshops, day and residential visits, and practical sustainability sessions for schools, colleges and youth groups. Within a new funded project at CAT called “Next Generation Earth”, a new Youth Panel is being developed to ensure young voices are embedded in CAT’s work and in community-based climate action.

Enable: Supporting further action across the network

Once people are inspired and informed, the next step is enabling them to make a difference, whether that’s embarking on a new green career or embedding sustainability into their existing career. CAT’s work doesn’t stop at education, it extends into innovation, collaboration and strategic leadership.

The Zero Carbon Britain Innovation Lab is a prime example. It delivers facilitated innovation processes that help organisations, councils and sectors address the climate and ecological emergencies. Drawing on systems thinking and futures design, the Lab enables collaboration across boundaries and translates sustainability ambitions into practical action.

To date, over 70 organisations and nearly 200 councils have benefited from CAT’s innovation support. Recent projects include:
- Growing into the Future: Supporting the growth of a resilient and economically sustainable horticulture sector in Wales through the LPIP project
- Dyfed Powys Food Resilience Scenarios Lab: Co-developing local responses to food system challenges across the region.
CAT’s membership network is another powerful enabler. It includes people at every stage of their green careers – from those just starting out to seasoned professionals and retirees. The annual Members’ Conference is a space for sharing experiences, learning from each other, and building collective momentum.

As a strategic leader in sustainability education, CAT plays a key role in shaping regional green skills development, working closely with the Regional Learning and Skills Partnership and other stakeholders to ensure Mid Wales is at the forefront of the green transition.

A Place Where Green Careers Begin

This Green Careers Week, we’re celebrating the many people who’ve found their way into green careers through CAT – students, volunteers, professionals, and changemakers. Their stories show that green careers aren’t just about jobs, they’re about making a difference, finding purpose, and helping shape a better future.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take the next step, CAT is here to support you. From hands-on learning to strategic innovation, we’re proud to be part of the journey.

Want to learn more about CAT?

Explore our postgraduate courses, volunteering opportunities, or sign up to our emails to keep up-to-date with all the latest from CAT.
November 7, 2025
The rise of local resilience
Across society, there is growing recognition of the need to build greater resilience in how we provide for ourselves. Paul Allen explores what we mean by resilience and how it can link up many different aspects of our lives.

Across the UK and beyond, communities are facing a new era of profound and abrupt changes. To rise to this challenge, we must recognise that we have become embedded in a ‘brittle’ society. In globalising supply chains, the freemarket economy has removed the diversity, variety and natural connections that underpin communities’ ability to ‘bounce back’. Failures can quickly begin to feedback on each other, carrying the challenges beyond any government or local authority’s ability to cope, without active citizen support.

Positive resilience

Although not of their own making, these changes are compelling communities to reconsider how they move forward into the second quarter of the 21st century. Local resilience is going to be an important factor in this transition. This is typically defined in two ways:
- The speed and competence with which a household, community, town or region can prepare for and recover from shocks or dislocation.
- A measure of how well a system can flip into a totally different but still workable living system, should the original one become untenable.
Both definitions are useful – but they only view resilience as a means of dealing with negative impacts. It is also useful for us to consider a third type of resilience: Our ability to proactively and collectively prepare for challenges while also unleashing a positive force within our communities which brings us together.

For example, as we switch from importing fossil fuels to using the renewable energy assets on our doorstep, we need to be smart, flexible and collaborative. By working together, we can harness the benefits locally, as many community renewable projects have demonstrated. Of course, reclaiming the power in energy is not the only action needed to increase our resilience. Communities can multi-solve across a wide range of areas, including health, food, transport, skills, equity and local cohesion.

By working collectively to develop our physical resilience, we also build psychological resilience, both on a personal and community level. Once we are actively working to increase our resilience, we feel better about our position. Being on such a trajectory brings us into relationships with others and so builds positive pathways into a new community with a sense of collective purpose. This alone can improve our quality of life, as many projects have demonstrated.

Resilient together

When disrupted, nature reacts in complex collective ways to return to a new balance. We can learn from this to help us prepare for when human society is disrupted. We can build in resilience as a key factor in motivating local actions.

Resilience can become a new lens through which we explore our lifestyles, our community, and the choices we make to support each other in challenging times.

Building local resilience is rooted in interpersonal networks. The links within our personal communities are clearly going to be important. However, developing a wider network of affinity groups beyond our immediate social circle is also invaluable. These people will form a group we can build deeper trust with – a first port of call in times of difficulty or opportunity. In the face of increasing power cuts, floods, droughts and snowfall, community resilience makes good sense to a lot of people. It strengthens communities and has all sorts of positive co-benefits. Across Scotland, the Community Resilience Volunteer Service supports people from a wide range of different backgrounds who have the drive and commitment to put others first and support their communities.

Rethinking resilience can offer a powerful positive driver for engaging more deeply with our friends and neighbours. When people come together in common purpose, they can be a powerful force for change.

For example, Somerset Prepared is a partnership working closely with communities to help enhance local resilience to emergencies. It is made up of a diverse range of organisations able to provide advice, guidance and support to help volunteers and local community groups develop initiatives that enhance resilience in their area.

Just in Case

Resilience building is going to play an increasing role as we reshape our lives in the coming years, moving from the margins to become central in our communities. To help with this, new research on food security has just been released by the UK National Preparedness Commission. Led by regular CAT guest lecturer Professor Tim Lang, the Just in Case: narrowing the UK civil food resilience gap report makes clear that our system needs reforming. The report highlights case studies that demonstrate what needs to be scaled up, including civic awareness, local and national policies, plus horticulture markets and community food projects.

Skills for the future

Building the resilience of our communities can deliver tangible benefits, as well as being a personally creative, connecting and empowering process. CAT recognises this and offers people the opportunity to learn new skills and have hands-on experiences in a diverse mix of areas, from renewables for households and eco-refurbishment to food growing and soil regeneration. We also offer bespoke training for groups, such as Civic Square and the Ecological Citizens Network. The knowledge, skills and tools we share will enable more people and their communities to make the vital transition to a more resilient future.

About the author

Paul is CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Knowledge and Outreach Coordinator. He has been involved with our research into zero carbon scenarios since the beginning, coordinating the development of research reports and liaising directly with government, industry, NGOs and the arts to share findings.
August 8, 2025
LPIP Innovation Lab: From Mapping the System to Designing Interventions

CAT’s Innovation Lab workshops for the Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales project are bringing together stakeholders from the Welsh Horticulture sector to explore how they can work together for a more sustainable future.

Following the first of CAT’s Innovation Lab workshops for the Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales project, which brought together stakeholders to explore the challenges and opportunities facing the Welsh horticulture sector, the project team has been delving into the data and insights gathered.

These findings are now shaping the next phase of the project: the co-design of practical, testable interventions that can be trialled in real-world settings.

The team has been carrying out a systems analysis, looking at the relationships between different parts of the system to identify where there is energy to build on, and where persistent challenges may be holding things back. These insights are helping to highlight potential areas for intervention and are informing the design of the second workshop.

Working together to develop solutions

The second workshop took place on Wednesday 30 July at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Around 30 participants attended, including most of those who joined the first session, along with several new contributors. This session marks a shift into the innovation phase of the lab, where participants will use design thinking to generate and develop ideas in response to a specific prompt.

The goal is to co-create five or six core intervention ideas. These will be explored and voted on to gauge where there is the most enthusiasm and potential for impact. While no final decisions will be made at this stage, the workshop will result in a shortlist of well-developed ideas that can be taken forward for further testing.

Implementing solutions iteratively

This is not just a theoretical exercise. The project has secured £30,000 of funding to trial one or more of the interventions over a 12-month period, from autumn 2025 to autumn 2026. Innovation managers at Aberystwyth University will oversee this phase, supporting the testing and iteration of the chosen ideas on the ground.

In complex systems, it’s not always possible to predict the outcomes of an intervention in advance. That’s why this phase is focused on experimentation – trying things out, monitoring how they work, and adapting them as needed. The aim is to learn what works in practice and to use that learning to inform future action.

Before implementation, the shortlisted ideas will be reviewed by a challenge panel, which will help ensure that the funding is directed toward the intervention with the greatest potential for positive impact.

CAT’s Role

While CAT’s role in the implementation phase is still to be confirmed, the team will likely maintain an oversight role as the project progresses.

This next stage of the LPIP Innovation Lab represents a significant step forward – from understanding the system to actively designing and testing solutions. We look forward to sharing more updates as the work continues.

August 8, 2025
CAT’s Innovation Lab: A Co-creative Approach to Systemic Change

At CAT, we believe that real change happens when people come together to share knowledge, challenge assumptions and co-create new ways forward. Our Zero Carbon Britain Innovation Lab is designed to enable exactly that – helping people tackle complex environmental and social challenges through structured, participatory processes.
(more…)

June 10, 2025
‘The finance COP’

After two weeks of intense debate plus a 30-hour overrun, COP29 ended with a global agreement on climate finance. CAT’s Paul Allen, an official observer, reflects on the key challenges being discussed and explores what needs to happen next.

Despite the frustrations, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) process is the only global mechanism we have for protecting the planet and the space it provides for human life. My role as an official observer was to virtually attend many of the negotiations where groups and blocs from across the globe came together to agree what must be done. The key challenges are increasing the speed of emissions reductions, scaling-up adaptation to help people cope with extreme weather, and providing support mechanisms to deal with the loss and damage experienced by communities across the globe.

Editorial credit: Zulfugar Graphics / Shutterstock.com

Reducing emissions

Following the landmark 1.5°C Paris Agreement, every five years countries must ratchet up their commitments to reduce emissions, called nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The next round of NDCs, which sets targets to 2035, must be submitted by February.

In the run up to each COP, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) releases its annual Emissions Gap Report. This year it was titled No more hot air… please! making a clear case that nations must commit to dramatically increase the ambition of their NDCs or the 1.5°C goal will soon be beyond reach.

Taking advice from the Climate Change Committee, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband submitted the UK’s ambitious new NDC during COP29 committing to slashing greenhouse gases by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035. CAT welcomes this commitment, but delivery must be rooted in an equitable plan. People and communities across the UK must be invited to join the journey, exploring ways to use the income from clean energy to deliver benefits in lifestyles, employment, resilience and provision of the skills needed.

By the end of COP29, three new NDCs had been submitted, by the UK, UAE and Brazil. At the time of writing, we wait to hear from other countries.

Adaptation

Adaptation is not an option. It is a necessity. This is because protection for vulnerable areas is now urgent. Released just before COP29, the UN Adaptation Gap Report 2024: Come hell and high water makes it clear that nations must dramatically increase adaptation.

A key barrier for many developing nations is the finance required. Unlike investing in renewables or saving energy, adaptation does not directly earn a return but helps prevent the future costs of loss and damage.

Loss and damage

The growing direct costs to infrastructure, livelihoods, natural systems and economies from extreme weather often exceeds what communities can cope with. This is a growing global challenge which demands increased financial support. Throughout COP29 I witnessed deeply moving stories of the impacts from countries across the globe and a growing recognition that the current loss and damage fund must be scaled up.

Editorial credit: Nour Ghantous / Shutterstock.com

Talking finance

Back in 2009, at COP15 wealthy nations agreed to deliver $30 billion annually, rising to $100 billion by 2020, to enable developing nations to deal with climate change. Although the wealthier countries did finally meet this in 2022, it has now become clear it falls far short of what is needed. For the first COP in 15 years, delegates had to agree a “new collective quantified climate finance goal”.

As the negotiations rolled on, new finance goals were called for, in the order of $1.3 trillion per year. Some NGOs and negotiator blocs also expressed concerns that including too much in private sector loans could drive developing countries deeper into debt.

After two weeks of intense discussions, the negotiations overran by more than 30 hours. Although COP29 recognised the $1.3 trillion annual target by 2035, only $300 billion per year is set to come from grants and low-interest loans from developed countries.

While this may be presented as a significant rise in support for poorer countries hard hit by climate change, it is nowhere near enough. India was one of the many countries not happy with this deal, stating, “This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face.”

Although the wealthier countries agreed to take the lead, other countries were encouraged to make voluntary contributions. This highlighted a need to update the language used. For example, the COP process still defines China and India as ‘developing’ countries without obligation to provide finance. Today, China is one of the largest economies, so in the COP29 agreement, its support was included in the finance target.

Things must be improved by COP30

Solutions are not happening fast enough. Climate finance needs to be real money, not loans. The increase should be much higher to meet the actual needs of vulnerable and impacted countries, include inflation, begin much sooner, and include the profits made by the fossil fuel industry. Draft COP agreements must be ready well before the final day, and rules are needed to ensure lobbyists are from companies working on solutions. Also, countries must rapidly submit more ambitious NDCs and delivery plans.

Focus on solutions

As usual, there was a diverse mix of official COP side-events exploring innovative solutions. CAT is a member of the International Network for Sustainable Energy or INFORSE, which promotes the new concept of a global goal of ‘sufficiency’. This investigates the enablers for changing individual and collective lifestyles so that we all can live within planetary boundaries, while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of citizens, communities and ecosystems.

As solutions scale up, they can change systems. In 2023 the UK green economy grew 9%, which shows that innovation drives employment and prosperity.

In addition, the global installed capacity of photovoltaic (PV) solar has now hit 2 Terawatts, only two years since the 1-Terawatt landmark was reached. The growth rates across this industry have been around 40% for decades and will continue as solar becomes the most cost effective way of producing power in the world.

Delivering the UK vision

As we move forward to COP30, there is an urgent need to pull together around the UK’s commitments for 2035. Targets and goals are important, but these must become actions in our towns, villages, cities and countryside to get us on the path to zero carbon and boost community resilience. The UK can demonstrate genuine leadership, but to deliver change at scale, new skills are vital. The stories shared at COP29 continue to motivate CAT to support the deeply committed groups who visit us. We must all continue to do everything we can as part of an evolving eco-system of positive climate and nature solutions.

About the author

Paul is CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Knowledge and Outreach Coordinator. He has been involved with our research into zero carbon scenarios since the beginning, coordinating the development of research reports and liaising directly with government, industry, NGOs and the arts to share findings.

November 29, 2024
Empowering councils to take climate action

As we reach the milestone of having engaged more than 250 UK councils in Carbon Literacy and Carbon Awareness training, Amanda Smith, CAT’s Head of Learning and Education, reflects on the journey so far and the impact we are making together.
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September 27, 2024
Planting fertiliser forests for sustainable crop production

New research is revealing the potential of perennial green manures in improving soil health without contributing to climate change. Clo Ward shares the latest findings on this greener way to grow.
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September 27, 2024
It takes a village

Inspired by CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain project, the village of Wedmore in Somerset has been exploring how to live more sustainably. Paul Allen revisits this community showing that practical climate and nature action starts at home.
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August 16, 2024