Thinking Globally While Acting Locally in the Transition to Net Zero

With COP26 around the corner, there is much global focus on Climate Change. This week, I was invited to chair a virtual climate summit, delivered by the Greater Brighton Economic Board. This partnership of local authorities, education providers and business organisations is driving economic growth in the Brighton city region, and committed to driving green growth.

The opening keynote was delivered by Professor Sir Dieter Helm; probably the most balanced and clear voice on the issue of climate change in the UK today. His speech focused on the twin imperatives of reducing emissions and improving sequestration, and the need to balance the two – in fact he made the point that our failure to balance those two things is what has got us into this mess. He called on all of us to be “ruthlessly realistic” in understanding what is needed, and to think about emissions from a consumption rather than production perspective. We had a clear global context to the rest of the summit.

Building on this, and some regional realities from Asher Minns of UEA’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, we then moved through a series of inspiring examples of local action in the Brighton city region, including:

• the work to restore the Kelp forests on the Sussex coast, vital for both their incredible carbon sequestration ability, and to improve and sustain marine biodiversity
• the potential for ‘green’ hydrogen to replace fossil fuels, and to mitigate for the challenges of renewables like wind and solar which are inconsistent power sources – and beyond potential, the realisation of this energy source for Brighton and Hove Buses

We then had two great international examples of cities which are driving their own ambitious climate change action plans; Portland, Oregon in the US, and Lahti in Finland.

And we also explored the local authority perspective, both in terms of Greater Brighton’s own ‘Blue Green Investment Plan’, and the skills support being provided to local authority teams.

The phrase “Think global, act local” has been around for many years, and too often it’s been somewhat meaningless. But it seemed to come to life in this summit; with a clear global perspective, and at the same time much evidence of local action, even while we all wait to see what international bodies and national governments are going to do.

This is just one region in the UK, and there are many challenges that could not be addressed in a half day event, but on the evidence of this summit, thinking globally and acting locally may well be the only sure way to transition to Net Zero.

If you'd like to see for yourself how climate change and green growth is being tackled at local level, you can watch the recording of this summit on Greater Brighton's YouTube Channel