Thread by @whittso

I'm told 7th Jan is the last day you should say 'happy new year'. Not sure that's true, but it's the end of the 1st full week of the year & I wanted to take stock of 2021 & my team's work on climate, sustainability, policy and business leadership. So a thread... #2021highlights

Obviously #COP26 was the natural culmination of the year. A huge range of new commitments announced, a plethora of discussions and activities, all around a negotiation process that was inclusive and made progress but felt terrifying slow

But undeniably the activities at and in the run up to COP will have delivered more climate action so our task is to further accelerate that progress.

My post-COP take is here cisl.cam.ac.uk/news/blog/mome…

Full @cisl_cambridge round up here cisl.cam.ac.uk/news/cisl-cop2…

However it wasn't just what happened at COP - the progress made in the run up to it was far more important. #2021highlights

At the European policy level this equates to the mammoth compilation of legislation that is the #Fitfor55 package. @ClimateCLG has delivered analysis, position papers, events, discussions and more on the package - see our hub here corporateleadersgroup.com/clg-europes-fi…

Also a thread I did on our 1st set of analysis of the package is here

https://mobile.twitter.com/whittso/status/1447527286174015493

One much discussed element within the package is the introduction of carbon border adjustment mechanisms or CBAMs... I'm proud that my team was able to produce one of the most thorough and all encompassing analyses of this idea. cisl.cam.ac.uk/resources/publ…

We found that CBAM's legality depended on their design, but that they would almost inevitably prompt legal challenge. We also found that direct benefits were limited but that CBAMs may be critical in enabling climate action. cisl.cam.ac.uk/resources/publ…

Another key EU policy element we engaged in was work to drive production of climate neutral materials through our new CLG Europe Materials Taskforce. The 1st major output of the taskforce is this briefing on the Sustainable Products Initiative corporateleadersgroup.com/accelerating-t…

This work built on the excellent collaboration with @AgoraEW to develop #TomorrowsMarketsToday - our groundbreaking report on how to accelerate the decarbonisation of industrial sectors by using demand side policies corporateleadersgroup.com/tomorrows-mark…

But we didn't leave food and agricultural sectors out... presenting @ClimateCLG positions for further change in these sectors as well with our briefing on a sustainable food future corporateleadersgroup.com/towards-sustai…

On the UK side homework for #COP26 has focused on the development of the long awaited UK #netzero strategy. #2021highlights

In the 1st half of the year we set out how business already was contributing to this challenge but how UK policy and additional business action was needed to accelerate the process of change with our Bridging the Gap report corporateleadersgroup.com/news/bridging-…

We also worked with pretty much every major business group in the UK to found the UK Business Group Alliance for Net Zero - which ran a range of events, seminars and outreach activities to unlock further business action corporateleadersgroup.com/corporate-lead…

Events like this business climate leadership summit brought our message to a wide range of business and government actors corporateleadersgroup.com/events/uk-busi…

But we also understood that alongside the necessary focus on cutting emissions and achieving net zero there needs to be a real effort to prepare for inevitable climate impacts. corporateleadersgroup.com/preparing-for-…

The covid pandemic itself has made the threat of systemic risks like climate change painfully clear - we must not put off the task of improving the resilience of our communities and economy corporateleadersgroup.com/preparing-for-…

All this work built off the back of some great in house analysis we did #2021highlights

At the beginning of the year we set out how the UK could and should maximise its climate leadership post Brexit cisl.cam.ac.uk/resources/low-…

We've also been doing lots more work (to be launched this year) on our thinking about 'competitive sustainability cisl.cam.ac.uk/resources/low-…

But some of the best thinking has been in the partnerships we've been able to develop #2021highlights

I've already mentioned our work with Agora. Our work with @CambridgeEcon has been positive in a number of places... one key highlight was commissioning this technical report on the cost of capital corporateleadersgroup.com/technical-repo…

Finally an amazing partnership to be part of has been working with @Rob__Miller @whittlelab and others on the @AIAZero whittle.eng.cam.ac.uk/aviation-impac…(AIA,journey%20to%20climate%20neutral%20aviation.

The AIA has the potential to be an invaluable tool in supporting the decarbonisation of aviation whittle.eng.cam.ac.uk/aviation-impac…

So... a huge amount done, but a huge amount to do #2021highlights. The year ahead needs to see dramatically accelerated delivery across a range of fronts. It also needs to be more joined up with other challenges. More on this next week!

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