In June 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050.

The target requires the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, compared with its previous target of an 80% reduction from 1990 levels. The UK has already reduced its emissions by 42%, whilst growing the economy by 72% and putting clean growth at the heart of its modern Industrial Strategy.

As well as appreciating the financial benefits involved in supporting sustainable projects, banks and insurers must begin to assess the future costs they’ll be liable to, should extreme weather and rising oceans become more common. Ultimately, these companies hold their own destiny, as well as their future profitability in their own hands. Therefore, as the UK and the rest of the world begins to recover from the shock of COVID-19, it’s possible that the next global shock could have much more catastrophic and irreversible implications.

Although the UK Government announced that it has a target to achieve Carbon Net Zero by 2050, at present, there is no road map to how this will be achieved. Consequently, there is a real risk that we will not meet these targets and the opportunity to address the global climate change issue will be lost. Will future generations look back at 2020 and see it as the year the construction industry failed them?

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