My ten green highlights of 2022 - and a look forwards to 2023

Each year, I give a (largely optimistic) summary of the year's environmental highlights.?Here’s my selection for 2022. Let me know if you agree or disagree and what your highlights were.

1. Seaweed.?From weed to climate superhero: seaweed has come to the fore as a cattle feed to cut methane emissions and as a winner of Prince William’s Earthshot prize as an alternative to plastic packaging. There were even calls for seaweed to be rebranded as a vegetable at the Hay Festival .
2. ?Batteries. This year, Toyota confirmed a new battery plan t in the UK, Rio Tinto has opted for battery power to drive its massive Pilbara ore trains and an electric Mercedes travelled 620 miles on a charge. They’re getting better, faster, more efficient and a major source of jobs.?
3. ?France. While the entente cordiale can be strained at times, France continues to serve up imaginative green policies. This year, it banned fossil fuel ads and short internal flights and provided a €4,000 incentive to invest in ebikes.??
4. ?Rhino bonds . The world’s first financial instrument dedicated to protecting a species was launched by 世界银行 in March.?Rather than annual interest payments, proceeds from the $150m bond go to conserving endangered species in South Africa.?If the numbers rise by 4% or more after five years, investors will see a success payment of 9.2%.
5. The Dutch Courts. They ruled in November that coal power generators could not seek compensation from the Dutch Government following a requirement to close their plants by 2030. ?The court ruled the companies could have expected the closure, given that Holland was seeking to cut emissions in line with national and international rules.
6. The Inflation Reduction Act. The US’s Inflation Reduction Act will do next to nothing to reduce inflation and is a shadow of what the Democrats once dreamed of. But by weaving together a vast array of tax credits, loan guarantees and grants, it will encourage people to make low-carbon purchases, such as electric cars, and encourage businesses to invest in green technologies. It’s a big deal and marks a real step change in the global race for green jobs.?
7. ?The nine euro train ticket. OK, so the jury’s out on whether this really caused a huge shift to public transport, but I loved travelling everywhere for a month on Germany’s rail suburban rail network just for €9. Like France it’s an imaginative, brave and hugely popular measure. Expect more in 2023 with the slightly more expensive Deutschlandticket .
8. ?Loose fruit and veg. As if it was needed, it was great to see WRAP (the waste reduction charity) research showing that fresh fruit and vegetables sold loose, without best-before labels, helps to reduce plastic packaging, prevent waste and cut emissions. It directly challenged the accepted thinking that packaging helps to preserve fresh produce.
9. The World Restoration Flagships. Ten initiatives , which together aim to restore more than 68 million hectares of land and coastline worldwide, were recognised by UN Environment Programme . They range from the Atlantic Forest Pact restoring 700,000 hectares of forest in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, to marine restoration in Abu Dhabi and from mangrove to mountain restoration in Indonesia, Serbia, Kyrgystan, Uganda and Rwanda.? Together these flagships are brilliant and optimistic examples of nature restoration on a big scale.?
10. Our own Future Ready and Net Zero progress.?Finally, I continue to be super proud of our own 科进 progress on Future Ready and our industry-leading commitment to halve the carbon of our advice and designs by 2030 which continues to grow momentum. Our Future Ready programme is helping us win lots of work each year which will make a real difference to communities across the world, and helps every one of us at WSP bring our best to our work each day.

?2023 promises to be a busy year too.?In the UK, we must confirm ambitious environmental targets.?We need to implement the commitments from COP27 and COP15.?And the private sector has a huge role to play in delivering a sustainable economy.

For now, thank you to everyone who involved in environmental and sustainability across the world for your efforts.?Thank you to all my brilliant colleagues and friends at WSP and, of course, to our clients for such challenging and interesting work.?Have a great break, a safe and healthy festive season and onwards into 2023.