Climate change and net zero

On Thursday 26^th May, Thu, May 26, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM, Defra and Natural England are hosting a webinar on bringing together partners, legislation and funding to create the Nature Recovery Network (NRN); a national network of wildlife-rich places. Collaboration will be essential to deliver the objectives of the NRN, and support from the private sector will be vital to ensure coordinated delivery and cross-sectoral action. The webinar will aim to raise awareness and further interest in the NRN; and why it is vital for businesses to invest in and support nature recovery. The webinar will also feature information on wider nature-related guidance for businesses, which will be of interest, and a chance to ask questions. This webinar will be relevant to businesses across all sectors, which have impacts and dependencies on nature, and have biodiversity strategies and corporate/ project targets with regards to carbon and nature.  To register, click here.

WRAP has been working closely with businesses, government, academics, and expert bodies to develop new Courtauld 2030 Scope 3 Measurement & Reporting Protocols for UK Food & Drink businesses. This work has been developed following widespread consultation with the food and drink sector, including many Courtauld 2030 signatories through the GHG Working Group. The new Protocols will be launched next Thursday, 19 May, which is also Earth Overshoot Day.

The practical detailed guidance will explain how to apply recognised more generic global guidance on measuring scope 3 emissions to UK food and drink – to help individual UK food and drink businesses to measure emissions and to do so consistently. Resources will include:

• Scope 3 Measurement & Reporting Protocols for UK Food & Drink businesses – full version. This builds on existing globally accepted guidance (Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Science Based Targets Initiative) and sector-specific guidance and will be focused on ‘purchased goods’ in particular. The Protocols will also provide practical steer e.g. on determining materiality, judging data needs, tracking & reporting on progress.
• Scope 3 Measurement & Reporting Protocols for UK Food & Drink businesses – summary version. An introduction to the Scope 3 Protocols and advice on how they are best used. Designed for senior decision-makers and international audiences.
• Supplier/product questionnaire. Recommended questions for businesses to ask supply chains when requesting data.
• Emission factor database.  Excel workbook to assist companies to assess hot spots of emissions within the supply chain. This is currently under peer review will be released it later this year.

Following the success of the first Phase 2 competition windows, Government has launched the Phase 2: Summer 2022 competition window of the IETF. Phase 2 is worth around £220 million in funding between Autumn 2021 and 2025.

Businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can now bid for a share of up to £70 million in grant funding through the Phase 2: Summer 2022 competition window. To view the applicant guidance and make an application for funding, please visit this competition page.

The competition will open for applications on Monday 30 May and will run until 3pm on Friday 9 September 2022. The competition will provide grant funding towards the costs of:

• Studies - feasibility and engineering studies to investigate identified energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects prior to an investment decision.
• Energy Efficiency projects - deployment of technologies to reduce industrial energy consumption.
• Deep Decarbonisation projects - deployment of technologies to achieve industrial emissions savings.

Case studies of Phase 1 competition winners can be found here.  

If you have any questions about the Phase 2 competition or would like to discuss a potential application, please contact IETF@beis.gov.uk. They also have published answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

There will be an IETF Phase 2: Summer 2022 webinar on Wednesday 8 June. To register, please visit their registration site. The event will be recorded and will be available to stakeholders to view at any time via a playback system.

To help potential applicants to find suitable partners, there is an IETF networking platform. To register and book meetings, please visit https://ietf-phase2.meeting-mojo.com/.

For those interested in applying for a share of up to £60 million in grant funding from the IETF (Phase 2 competition window closes on 29 April 2022) towards the costs of feasibility and engineering studies, energy efficiency deployment projects and deep decarbonisation deployment projects, you can find out more, view the applicant guidance and make an application for funding, please visit our competition page.

BEIS are also running stakeholder clinics so you can ask questions around potential bids, scope of the competitions, eligibility criteria, how to apply for funding, the IETF support and information services available, etc.  The final clinics of this competition window are taking place on 12 April and 19 April 2022.  Please visit the registration site to attend.

BEIS have now published guidance to help publicly quoted companies, large private companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) understand how to meet new mandatory climate-related financial disclosure requirements.  The regulations were made on 17 January 2022 and apply to reporting for financial years starting on or after 6 April 2022.