To boldly go: why collaboration is key on green initiatives

These events were:

• Captain Kirk – that adventurer hero for those of us of a certain vintage – finally made it into space, closely followed by criticism of space tourism by HRH Prince William and concerns about climate anxiety.
• Debates about which world leaders will and will not attend the COP26 summit and HRH The Queen’s “blast”.
• The Guardian newspaper running a front page article on the University of Cambridge breaking off talks on a £400m collaboration with the UAE “helping to solve some of the greatest challenges facing our planet” due to the controversial Pegasus hacking software.

And the relevance of all of this? Whatever we do or don’t achieve at local level is influenced by macro events which are themselves headline grabbing, but need to be tempered by cool and balanced analysis of the facts.

One may seek to criticise billionaires who are providing “space adrenalin shots” and certainly the money spent on such trips could arguably be better utilised on Earth, personal choice and freedoms notwithstanding. But we must be cautious not to then allow such criticism (valid or otherwise) to seep into wider condemnation about, for example, the space economy (so vital to parts of Oxfordshire) as if it solely exists to waste tons of carbon blasting rockets and satellites into space, thus ignoring the wider human welfare and scientific benefits. Caution is required for out of context “criticism creep” and protest.

There are many achievements to celebrate in Oxfordshire at present – schemes such as the Osney Lock Hydro; the prize winning Earth Trust’s Earth Lab, the Springfield Meadows development in Southmoor, the Zeus Development at Harwell and the CABI HQ in Wallingford as examples of sustainable developments. In the last few days Williams Racing pledging to be climate positive and sustainable by 2030 is to be applauded as is the investment in bio/pharma – generally and following the AZ vaccine rollout. The ‘logistics corridor’ being created from Abingdon to Bicester and west to Witney is more than taking shape.

Sitting on my desk at present is a scheme to bring car charging points to public areas on a nationwide scale, involving a series of collaborations between commercial landowners and operators, public authorities, battery storage facilities and charging mechanisms.

The region should be proud of what has been achieved and what is in the pipeline. But more is required and whilst there are well known political and regional differences, all will need to sense check if the wider climate benefit is to be assisted by what is being planned in the coming years.

The view from my desk is of the dreaming Oxford spires from one aspect but on the other, of the south facing roofs of a retail development without a single solar panel…

So we must “Boldly Go” (sic).

This article is part of Local Authority Matters – Nov 2021