“Deliver, deliver, deliver”
That was the message at a roundtable event on the theme of the North Wales green economy organised by NatWest and Business Live.
It reflected a frustration that talk around the climate crisis and ambitious roadmaps were not always followed by action.
Those taking part also reiterated the need to press on with a raft of smaller actions to reduce the region’s carbon footprint rather than rely on ‘big ticket’ schemes that often don’t materialise.
Ashley Rogers, Commercial Director of the North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council, said: “North Wales is blessed with almost every potential renewable energy source, whether it’s tidal, hydro, solar or wind, on-shore and off-shore and we have a skills base in nuclear.
“This means we have huge potential in low carbon energy. The challenge is to deliver on that potential.
“Too much emphasis on just major projects is a danger and we have seen that with Wylfa. We need to both deliver smaller short-term projects such as retrofitting housing and local renewable schemes, and at the same time develop longer term larger strategic projects such as hydrogen and nuclear. We will need both to get to Net Zero.”
He said the North Wales Growth Deal was a good mix of smaller local energy developments and longer-term larger energy projects - but added he was cautious about making ‘new’ jobs the focus of the discussions. “Reducing our carbon footprint and avoiding irreversible climate change is the main goal.”
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He added: “New jobs are a bonus on green economy investments, not the main driver. Numbers are also likely to be low compared to existing sectors. If you really want thousands of highly skilled new jobs in the green economy, then you have to both develop technology, manufacture locally and export. Green economy job numbers are at the same level as they were in 2014, so if you want decarbonisation and major job numbers together then we need a more joined up approach.”
NatWest said banks can play a role in supporting the delivery of projects - but also help businesses deliver small changes that can make a difference.
Gemma Casey, NatWest Cymru ecosystem manager, said: “We think banks have a key role to play, both in getting our own house in order but also supporting businesses, whether that is through financing renewables but also really crucially helping SMEs, the backbone of the North Wales economy, to become greener and more resilient and to power the recovery, so it is a more equitable and greener recovery.”
She added: “Collaboration is the key to all of this, it doesn’t which sector you are talking about we really need to a concerted effort from government, public sector, from big corporates and SMEs, it is only when everyone pulls together that this will happen.”
Sarah Hopkins, director of Sustain Wales, agreed it was important not to just focus on the ‘big projects’.
She said: “There is really strong work being done on community renewable energy projects in north west Wales and small social enterprises forming from these community energy projects. DEG is a really good example of that.
“We need to look at where we are going to get the co-benefits, need to be looking at how using renewable energy can bring fuel prices down for people and small businesses as well, that’s why it’s important to not just focus on huge projects but to also bring it down to a local level because a lot of the change that needs to happen is going to be a local authority and community level.”
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She highlighted the housing sector as a key area where the tools were ready now to make a real difference in energy usage.
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When it came to potential hurdles Tara King, founder of KingShipp Sustainable Solutions and Chair of Sustainable Wales, said the legacy of some projects that haven’t worked out can put the public off new schemes.
She also said there should be more levers to helps businesses make changes.
Ms Casey said with businesses already battling issues like Covid and Brexit they could consider making carbon reducing changes as “too timely, costly or difficult”.
She added: “They also often don’t know what it is they need to do and that is a real big problem. They know they need to do something, they know there is a tremendous pressure out there but they don’t know what they can do in their business. That is why we are introducing initiatives to try and address this.”
Mr Rogers said firms often faced having to speak to various different agencies in order to get support needed and coordinating this would help make a difference for time pressured companies.
He said the biggest barrier though to getting on with investment was consistency and certainty and “that certainty comes from Government” - with tax incentives, supports and a clear roadmap for different technologies. He added that starting key programmes with very ambitious targets, failing to hit them and then cancelling the schemes was damaging due to the uncertainty this created.
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Ms Hopkins agreed national government support is vital but said that the role of local government was “as important” given that areas that can decarbonise quickly fall under local authorities. She said they can lead with action plans.
Ms King said local authorities have a very key intermediate leadership role between central government and communities but they needed support and clarity to deliver this.
She said: “The reality is local authorities do deliver, they don’t just talk about plans and actions. There is always that political process at the beginning but they absolutely do deliver but they need more support.”
The participants were divided when it came to where nuclear fitted in with the green agenda.
Ms King had concerns over the longevity of the waste materials.
She said: “That is the bit I find unsustainable. In its production period it is a clean technology, it is that after effect and the risks that concern me so I could prefer not to see it as part of the bigger picture. I would prefer to see it phased out. That is not popular in some parts of the country where it is supplying jobs but I think we can address those gaps through investments into tidal and other large scale renewable projects.”
Mr Rogers said waste was an issue but added: “We have to take a pragmatic approach and look at the overall impact on net zero of a project and how quickly positive impacts can be delivered. It’s not one technology or another but rather a mix of technologies that all have a positive impact on our carbon footprint and environmental impact.”
Ms Hopkins added that she did not believe nuclear was needed to get to net zero and instead it needed more investment in hydro power and off-shore wind.
She added: “The sheer cost and time regardless of the environmental factors is my main reason. I’m a pragmatist but I would rather see the investment put in other areas.”
With the Senedd election looming the main message to politicians was to work together on tackling climate change because the issue was so important.
Ms Hopkins said: “We need a long-term view, not funding of programmes tied to political terms. I think that we need that long term view with interim goals in mind. This is not about party politics, this is something that is going to affect everybody and I would like to see parties working together.”
Mr Rogers agreed and said they should target support to help decarbonise existing businesses now and give certainty on future infrastructure projects.
His final message was “deliver, deliver, deliver”.