COP30 underlines the pivotal role of innovative green technology

As leaders of 194 countries struggle to agree on political responses to escalating global warming problems, the world is increasingly turning to its fast-growing climate-tech sector for alternative answers – an area where Lancashire and the UK are in pole position to innovate, export, and offer the planet strategic solutions to help make net-zero work socially, economically, and commercially.

News (see below)

However, progress towards an effective net-zero is being made on three fronts: –

♦ RedCAT was one of more than 140 companies and 80 countries at COP30 urging governments to commit to a firm deliverable roadmap for the transition away from fossil fuels

Also see RedCAT News: Global call for a fossil-fuel roadmap at COP30

♦ Green Innovation – Sustainable Growth: Driving the UK’s Low Carbon Tech Future is a new report published by the British Chambers of Commerce which examines the low carbon sector’s commercial potential but also – with a massive input from RedCAT Network members in Lancashire – how growth barriers can be overcome.

On 8^th December, RedCAT CEO Prof. Miranda Barker OBE DL presents the report to the Net Zero Council which is chaired by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband.

♦ The Government has also published its updated detailed net-zero strategy.

– Like the “curate’s egg” COP30 has been good in parts

The state of the curate’s boiled egg – good in some parts if not other – is often quoted as an example of desperately trying to rescue success from the jaws of failure. However, unlike the well-known Punch cartoon analogy, COP30 needs to be seen as a genuine overall success, as explained below.

Clearly, there was disappointment over the failure of 194 nations meeting in Brazil in November to agree to all but end the use of fossil fuels as a major power source by the mid-point of this century.

The main sticking point, said the Brazilian presidency, was a blunt refusal by Saudi Arabia supported by Russia and India to implement a decision agreed at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 to end oil and gas use.

By not agreeing to create a roadmap for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems” the petrostates further highlighted the bitter 2023 divide between nations wanting to ‘phase-out’ high-carbon fuels, and oil, and gas producers scarcely prepared to ‘phase-down’ their principal exports.

Down but not out

Tellingly, fossil fuels were not mentioned in the final COP30 decision, despite 90 developed and developing nations pushing for them to be phased out. Strong COP28 language is being diluted!

Most importantly, the Brazilian COP presidency is now working closely with willing nations via high-level discussions on a new plan outside the COP primary framework, work that will continue through 2026 led by science, governments, industry, and the public, which will then be fed back into the COP process.

We mean business

To support the plan, RedCAT and many companies, business groups, subnational governments, health bodies and ‘actors driving real-world implementation’ signed a letter organised by the We Mean Business Coalition urging  governments to support a transition roadmap away from fossil fuels.

The letter read, “We as businesses call for the unanimous recognition of the importance of the transition towards clean electrification and renewables. The signing of a fossil fuel roadmap proposition by all governments would at long last give true recognition to the biggest climate challenge – and opportunity of our lifetimes”.

It was signed for RedCAT and the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce by Prof Miranda Barker OBE DL, who as RedCAT’s CEO was at the summit to actively promote Northwest low-carbon tech companies.

Incremental progress + innovative technology

Far from shutting the stable door after the fossil-fuelled horse had bolted, signing the letter was definitely a positive step forward because despite resistance from economies with invested interests, global momentum is moving inexorably towards a low-carbon world, albeit at too slow a pace.

There are at least three good reasons why this is true.

The first is that while nations failed to finalise plans to meet the 1.5⁰C maximum global temperature rise agreed at the 2015 milestone Paris climate agreement – a scientifically-derived figure calculated to avoid irreversible climate impacts – without Paris the world would now be much hotter.

Before the 2015 agreement, the world was on track for unmitigated temperatures to reach an estimated 3.7°C to 4.8°C above pre-industrial levels. Instead, the world is now moving towards a low-carbon future through low-cost electrification and other sustainable measures.

Avoiding the waste of fossil-fuels

The second is the intrinsic efficiency benefits of climate-tech, clean-tech, and green-tech – which is why innovate technology is so important.

A key point highlighted recently is that some two-thirds of fossil-fuel-based energy is lost as heat when burnt in old, inefficient thermal power plants. Petrol engine losses are greater still.

Renewable energy is different; electrification has lower overall power needs. For LED bulbs powered by wind or solar, other than 5% to 8% transmission loses, what goes in comes out again.

Electric vehicles (EVs) on charge lose some 10% to 25% converting from AC to DC, plus small losses from background systems, and while parked. But this is an improvement. Similar gains could come from domestic energy innovations and ‘heavy’ industry’, which might not be quite so heavy in the future.

On the minus side, rising living standards, plus energy-hungry data centres, do make a big difference. Even so, projected future world energy demands could be 50% lower.

Technology Implementation Program (TIP)

In a further boost to green-tech, TIP was launched at COP30 to strengthen technology priorities in developing nations, focus on carbon market mechanisms (Article 6), and launch the Global Implementation Accelerator to boost the speed and scale of climate action everywhere.

Reasons to Be Cheerful: Part Three (Ian Drury and the Blockheads )

The lyrics of this once-popular song considered the hidden positives of unfortunate events. An emerging issue is that the Global South – largely developing countries that are home to some 50% of the world’s population – will be the arena where practical climate change battles are fought.

The weapons will probably be technologies and innovations created mainly by developed industrial states in the more prosperous North. The optimum solution will be to put the two halves together.

Commercialising potentially powerful new low-carbon technologies is RedCAT’s mission.

SMES to the rescue – and rescuing SMEs?

SMEs, RedCAT believes, will have a central role in reaching net-zero by way of technical innovations, local network solutions, and as the backbone of global supply chains.

COP30 underlined the importance of SMEs by calling for governments to provide better support – policy frameworks, accessible green finance, and streamlined guidance. SMEs represent some 99% of UK businesses by numbers, and contribute to both global emissions and GDP.

Small may be beautiful … but

SMEs are crucial in the green transition because they are responsible for a significant portion of private sector emissions (circa 50%) – but also new innovations and implementing green solutions.

Organisations like the SME Climate Hub want governments to create policies and provide incentives that help SMEs to take climate action and adapt to climate risks.

However, many SMEs lack the necessary resources to meet climate change and need more government support, plus a clearer understanding of available incentives, says the SME Climate Hub.

… but securing finance is hard

SMEs can deliver climate solutions, but struggle to access climate finance to scale sustainability, says an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Sage report.

The survey in its fifth edition uses data from 8,250 SMEs in 17 markets, plus interviews with banks, investors, and international institutions, to show a clear divide between ambition and action. Many SMEs are keen to invest in greener operations, but cannot secure the necessary funding.

Small businesses with a big ask

A collective of organisations – SME Climate Hub, B Lab, and the We Mean Business Coalition – representing more than six million SMEs asked world leaders at COP30 for more support to cut emissions and build resilience, adding that poor government buy-in is the top barrier for SMEs.

Specifically, the collective has four key priorities: – providing policy frameworks that increase SME climate action; promoting the SME climate action business case; promoting a streamlined pathway with centralised climate action and resilience planning guidance; and SME access to green finance.

– A strong case for the Government to fund innovative technologies

The UK has some of the world’s most innovative businesses that are pivotal for the development of cutting-edge technologies. This is particularly true of the low carbon sector which is estimated will be worth more than £1 trillion in the UK domestic market by 2030.

Green Innovation – Sustainable Growth: Driving the UK’s Low Carbon Tech Future examines funding, policy, and potential capacity challenges that could limit the production and exporting of low carbon technology products.

Optimistically, the report also looks at how growth barriers can be overcome in a sector which expanded by more than 10% in the last year.

RedCAT research and recommendations

RedCAT CEO Miranda Barker describes why the report – which has been massively informed by RedCAT Network member companies – is so important now.

“Putting the report to the Secretary of State is a key moment which gives us the opportunity to explain how to remove barriers to low carbon tech commercialisation and how to maximise the UK’s economic value from our sector,” she says.

“The next stop is for a working party with DESNZ  (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) and key private sector firms, to refine a pivotal change in innovation funding!”

– Answering charges of a lack of sector-specific detail and reliance on immature technologies

After inheriting two failed attempts from previous governments to substantiate their carbon reduction plans, ministers hope the new Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan will show clearly how they now expect to meet statutory carbon budget requirements and benefit from the UK fossil-fuel to renewable energy transition.

The Government has published its first comprehensive plan to decarbonise key industries – although some sectors are still not included – in line with the UK’s legally binding obligations after being given a 29 October 2025 deadline to strengthen measures set out by the Conservatives.

It hopes to avoid a third High Court challenge with a reinvigorated net-zero strategy having lost twice to actions bought against if by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project.

In March, the High Court ordered the Government to publish an updated carbon delivery plan for a second time after ruling that a previous second version from the Conservative Government still had an overreliance on ‘risky technologies’ and lacked clarity on how 2050 net-zero targets will be met.

Better signals to the market

The revised plan – from the start of the 4^th Carbon Budget (2023) to the end of the 6^th (2037) – summarises past, present and future decarbonisation policies, and how policy signals must stimulate private sector investments in renewable energy, electric transport and low-carbon manufacturing.

Ministers have cooperated with businesses, trade unions and NGOs on the revision which they expect will deliver 96% of the emissions cuts needed by 2030, more than halve the economy’s carbon intensity in tonnes of emissions per unit GDP, and create job and export opportunities.

There is as yet no firm price tag, but the Government calculates nothing extra will be added to existing energy bills and it will remain on track to meet its manifesto promise of £300 annually cuts to domestic charge payer bill.

Looking after future generations

Energy and Net-Zero Secretary Ed Miliband believes the new plan is about delivering better lives – “from warmer homes and cleaner air to cheaper transport and increased access to nature”. He adds that it would be negligent to leave future generations facing energy insecurity and climate breakdown.

Clarity and certainty will help to unlock investments in “clean energy, jobs and growth at home”, he said, “And it will strengthen our position as a climate leader so we can push others internationally to take the action needed to avoid disaster.”

Moving away from coal

Since 1990, the UK has halved domestic emissions mainly by replacing coal for power generation and building heating. The new focus will be on decarbonising sectors that include manufacturing, transport and agriculture.

An economic and environmental winner

The UK net-zero sector grew by more than 10% between 2023 and 2024, adding approximately £83.1 billion to the economy – £28.8 billion from net-zero businesses and £54.3 billion from supply chains (). Globally, the green economy is recognised as the second-fastest-growing sector behind technology, because of its innovation, flexibility, and potential for sustained expansion.

Bonuses from a swift net-zero transition

It is also calculated that a rapid clean energy transition implemented now could boost UK GDP by £240 billion – or 6.4% – by 2050 with private green-tech investments delivering some $12 trillion in savings by 2050, because of falling technology costs, competitive growth, and new revenue streams.

Going beyond the net-zero target might more than double annual UK economic benefits from £36 billion from a standard net-zero transition to £70 billion (UK Business Council for Sustainable Development and Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

Major growth and job creation are foreseen in manufacturing, solar, wind, nuclear and energy storage, electric vehicle (EV) components, plus construction.