The way Cumbria develops and retains skills will determine if it can drive a green recovery from COVID-19, business and political leaders have said.
A combination of a well-established energy sector together with abundant natural resources for wind, tidal and hydrogen power make the county ideally placed to lead the North West’s transition to becoming a net zero carbon economy, a recent online forum has heard.
But only by tackling skills and education first will it be able to capitalise on green opportunities and ensure that nobody is left behind during the transition to cleaner power.
That was one of the conclusions of the forum – Powering Up the Recovery – attended by Copeland MP Trudy Harrison and Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron former shadow environment secretary, Baroness Sue Hayman, and head of emerging policy at energy regulator, Ofgem, Chris Brown.
Opening the discussion, Paul Bircham, regulation director of Electricity North West, said that the economic or environmental recoveries were interlinked and had to be tackled together for either to be successful.
He said: “COVID has dominated the news over the past year but climate change remains, potentially, our biggest challenge as a society. We are faced with two emergencies – an economic response to COVID-19 and a climate challenge to respond to.
“The economic response to COVID-19 must benefit the environment but, at the same time, the plans to address climate change must benefit the economy and society to support our recovery.
“By driving clean growth, we can create good jobs and new skills so that the economic and environmental recoveries benefit everybody, including those in society in vulnerable circumstances.”
To do this, he said Electricity North West had already accelerated some of its own infrastructure projects, which are designed to ease the transition towards becoming a net zero carbon economy, and had brought them forward to support the economic recovery.
This includes work to reinforce the network in both North Carlisle and Morton.
Chairing the discussion, Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership chief executive Jo Lappin said that everybody – including consumers, the business community and political leaders – now accepted that achieving net zero carbon was essential for both the environment and the economy.
She said: “Achieving net zero carbon will be down to three Cs – commitment, catalysts and collaboration.
“Everyone here recognises that Cumbria is ideally placed to lead a green recovery and wants to make this happen, and we need investment and policy to catalyse this.
“We all recognise that no one organisation can do this on its own, we all need to work together to make this happen.”
