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Back in September we introduced you to the regional environmental networks. These networks span the entirety of the Civil Service, and now the whole of mainland UK, and were encouraged by Civil Service Local and they have been organising exciting and interesting events from the beginning. Six months on from our original introduction we wanted to reintroduce let you know what they have been up to, their current plans for the future and how you can get involved. Scotland Environment Network The network has been raising awareness of climate change and the environment and helping people to understand what steps they can take as an individual to reduce their carbon footprint. The network has held events such as a session on Greenwashing from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The network is also currently looking for a new chair, so if you are keen in taking on this role, or joining the network in general please contact jenny.dee@dwp.gov.uk for more info. Civil Service North West Environment Network The network is open to all civil servants across the North West region who want to use their volunteering time and develop their skills no matter what you can do or how little time you have. As well as organising litter picks in their local areas for Members to do separately during Covid, the network held a virtual ‘Market Stall’ event, which gave attendees the opportunity to hear from a range of environmentally-focused local businesses to actively help to reduce their environmental footprint and give some inspiration to live more sustainably. Topics included plastic-free food and household products, repairing and up cycling, sustainable clothing, and activities in the local area to get involved in. Future events include lunchtime sessions on zero waste/sustainable food and growing your own fruit and veg (that includes small spaces); renewables/solar energy/grants; electric and hybrid cars/cycling and incentive schemes; and a special edition newsletter on recycling. Please email Chair jenny.hagan@hse.gov.uk for more info. North East, Yorkshire & the Humber The network in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber was launched July where the aim of the network is about exchanging ideas, shifting attitudes and taking tangible actions towards a better future. Natalia, the network's chair adds “As an individual and as a civil servant, I feel that there is an opportunity for all of us to do more to support our government in reaching its commitment to significantly reduce carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050”. Please contact Natalia.Tochenykh@dwp.gov.uk for more info. Midlands The Midlands Environment Network is the most recent regional network to be launched. It was launched back in December last year, this now means that there is a regional network covering all of mainland UK. At the launch event new members spoke about their aims for the network. It is a really good time to join the group and help shape what it can achieve. Please contact vanessa.boden@cabinetoffice.gov.uk for more info. South West and Wales The South West and Wales Environmental Network was relaunched in 2021 following a hiatus. They have already worked with the Environment Agency to set up events to promote Plastic-Free July, and have been working with Paint360 to encourage the re-engineering of waste paint into brand new paint. With many miles of coastline in their region, another activity they are supporting is voluntary beach clean-ups. Please contact co-chairs Laura-Jane.Harris@hmpo.gov.uk or Sue.Roach@dwp.gov.uk for more info. East, South East and London The purpose of the East, Southeast and London Environmental Network (ESEL-EN) is to connect people from a range of different government departments with a common interest in Environmental and Sustainability issues to encourage collaboration, share best practice and reduce duplication. Over the past year the network has held events such as Join the Green Side (reducing carbon footprint for home workers) and Plant Based Diets Lunch & Learn (educating about plant-based diets via personal experience of members). There are more events to come too, on 28 April the network will be hosting a Stop Food Waste Day a Teams event to raise awareness and share tips and best practises. Then on 8 June will be World Oceans Day, organising an individual or group beach cleans . On 22 September will be World Car Free Day, a mini competition to encourage participants to show how they moved around in a carbon-free way on the day. Please email matthew.dalton@food.gov.uk for more info. Next Steps Do you want to support environmental activity in your local area? Are you looking for ways to reduce your carbon footprint? Do you want to gain transferable work skills as part of your personal development? If so, joining your local regional network could help you achieve all of these. If you would like to get involved please use the contact details above for your respective region and enjoy! Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

The policy profession has defined a common set of standards at different levels of experience and seniority. What the standards do not do is specify skills according to policy subject areas, or depth of knowledge and expertise that is vital to effective decision making through to delivery for citizens, communities and the UK. As policy evolves as a profession, we want to better define and support policy careers across the UK. To do this, we want to test out (in partnership with others) where career groupings already exist across public service that encourage policy professionals (and others) to deepen domain expertise and move away from the often criticised culture of the generalist (from the Fulton Report in 1968 to Institute for Government Better policy making in 2022), whilst also supporting movement and career growth. There are existing specialisms in policy work including security, international and trade. We want to explore an expansion of these subject areas and whether we could formalise one based on Climate Change and Environmental Policy. The Head of Policy Profession, Tamara Finkelstein has commissioned Lee McDonough and David Hill to lead the testing of this as a career anchor for the profession (if this works, there will be others following). Many colleagues (including BEIS) are already working with GSCU to design a learning portfolio around climate change. We want to align our exploratory work to ensure that we co-create a robust programme that is useful and ultimately attractive. To achieve this, we need to know what would be credible for you, the environmental network members of the Civil Service. We are keen to set up workshops to explore further some core questions, including: What are some of the common knowledge areas needed across roles in climate change and the environment, irrespective of grades and departments? What are the work experiences common across climate change and the environment that set it apart as a career anchor? What would you want to see from the Policy Profession in support of a Climate Change and Environmental career anchor? What would you not want to see? Our inaugural Policy Festival Week will commence from Monday, 9th May. Wednesday, 11th May will focus on Climate change & Environment; we want to share the prospect of this work as well as topical knowledge. We will provide more information about the event but keen you save the date for now. If you’d like to be involved in a workshop to explore these questions, and share your views on climate change and environment as a career anchor, please email us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Emma Charles, from CSEN’s new partner Kin + Carta, shares why the digital transformation company is proud to work with us at CS Live and on meeting environmental goals. For me, this is a deeply personal intersection of purposes. I was a civil servant for 15 years – holding positions in the Home Office, Valuation Office and HMRC – before discovering an interest in carbon measurement and climate change. I found Kin + Carta, an organisation that shares my passions, and joined as Director of Public Sector Delivery. Kin + Carta is slightly different to more conventional end-to-end digital transformation provided. As a listed company, we must make a profit, so I am always interested in hearing about your digital projects. However, two other p-words are equally important to us. We equally balance people, planet and profit in our decisions. When it comes to people, our goal is to become internationally recognised as a best place to work, which means we must look after our kin. Our diversity and inclusion programme, IDEA, is designed by our people to ensure that everyone can be their authentic self in the workplace, that we have diverse teams who are paid equitably, and that our people are diversity and inclusion thought leaders in the wider industry. The third p is planet. Our goal is to save our clients 1 million tonnes of CO2e. We’re doing all the right basic stuff, measuring our scope 1 and 2 emissions, thinking about our sourcing strategies, and publishing our net zero plan. But we want to go much further than that and we actively encourage each other to speak to civil servants and other clients about how to measure and manage their carbon emissions. The effects are really showing. We are working with the Trade Remedies Authority and Planning Inspectorate to measure and reduce the carbon footprints attributable to the digital projects we are working on together, and our participation in CS Live has already opened doors to further conversations. If you’re interested in ways to measure the carbon footprint of your project, rejig your development practices to make them leaner and more climate friendly, or design your hosting infrastructure to (literally) save tonnes of carbon emissions, please do get in touch. Combining profit, people and planet allowed us to put ourselves forward for B-Corp accreditation, for which we were rigorously assessed over three years. We achieved certification last December and were the first company listed on the London Stock Exchange to do so. It was such a significant achievement, that our Global CEO J Schwan was invited to ring the bell at the LSE to start trading one morning. Now, back to that intersection I mentioned, between Kin + Carta and CSEN. It’s a beautiful combination for me as it brings together my attachment to the Civil Service and my drive to help people understand climate change and how they can, and should, do what they can to make a positive impact. K+C can help CSEN members extend their reach and speak to even more people about bringing environmental considerations into their work, and running their projects carbon consciously. K+C and CSEN can make impacts individually, but together we will drive real change.

The CSEN surge and innovation team's Rebecca Robertson presents Offshoots: a series of content to increase your access to the most up to date science and evidence for environmental issues. As part of this new series, we will host bitesize talks by experts (academics or practitioners), who will give a 15-minute plain English session highlighting the scientific evidence for common queries surrounding key environmental issues. There will be plenty of space for questions and clear signposting to resources or follow-up opportunities with experts. We hope you will come away from these sessions having learned something new and equipped with knowledge and resources to share with your colleagues. We aim to cover questions like why you should care about X, what the current situation is for X environmental issue (what we know and what don’t we know), quick wins for the environment and success stories from environmental research. We will collaborate with science professionals and practitioners internally, and externally through university networks, learned societies and professional bodies. Please contact us if there is a particular speaker or topic, you’d like us to add to our series (rebecca.robertson@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk) and keep your eye out for future Offshoots content on the website and in the newsletter. Launch event with the British Ecological Society The first in our Offshoots series takes place on 5 December (1-1.30pm) with the British Ecological Society (BES), which brings together almost 7,000 members around the world, with a shared vision of the importance of nature and people thriving in a world inspired by ecology. This is a non-campaigning organisation, and they aim to inform environmental policy by making the best ecological evidence accessible to decision-makers. Find out more about their policy work and opportunities in their guest blog on the CSEN website. We’re hosting a special short talk to tie in with the upcoming Montreal Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) 7-19 December 2022, where governments from around the world will come together to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss. Protected areas will play an integral part in nature recovery, provision of ecosystem services and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Protected areas are likely to feature regularly in negotiations. The BES’s Protected Areas report focuses on effective protection for biodiversity within the UK, and how 30% of land and sea can be effectively protected for nature by 2030 (30x30). We examine existing protection that is in place and whether this is sufficient to address the causes of biodiversity loss and reverse it, in line Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) strategic goals. In the report, we also assess the role of national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and the emerging role of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) in delivering the 30 x 30 target meaningfully in the UK. We provide guidelines for effective nature conservation on land and in the sea. Speakers: Dr Joseph Bailey is Lecturer in Ecology, Conservation, and Sustainability at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and lead author of the BES protected areas report. He’s interested in broad-scale biodiversity patterns and landscape ecology, the study of the relationship between geodiversity (landforms, geology, hydrology) and biodiversity, and the application of these areas to conservation. Rick Stafford is Professor of Marine Biology and Conservation at Bournemouth University and chair of the British Ecological Society’s Policy Committee. His research interests include protected areas, blue carbon, fishing and artificial reefs, as well as modelling approaches to identify effective solutions to environmental problems.

CSEN's surge and innovation team introduce its first Offshoots series guest, the British Ecological Society (BES) with a deep-dive into the organisation's policy priorities. The British Ecological Society (BES) is a learned society which brings together almost 7,000 members around the world, with a shared vision of nature and people thriving in a world inspired by ecology. The BES is a non-campaigning organisation, and our policy team aims to inform environmental policy by making the best ecological evidence accessible to decision-makers. The BES has English, Scottish and Welsh Policy Groups, which aim to unite ecologists with an interest in influencing policy with policymakers, including civil servants. Activities of the BES policy team and devolved nations policy groups include the following areas. Policy reports and briefings The BES Policy Team produces policy reports, synthesising ecological knowledge on policy-relevant topics into readable reports for policymakers and other groups of key stakeholders, in order to contribute to key policy discussions and influence the design of new policy developments. The first two policy reports focussed on Protected Areas and Nature Recovery and Nature-based Solutions, for which we hosted launch events and received substantial media coverage. The next big project is a report that will summarise the ecological evidence on regenerative agricultural practices and provide policy recommendations for a transition to more sustainable farming methods. Responding to consultations The BES Policy Team answers consultations from governments and other relevant authorities, synthesising the ecological evidence available by tapping into our network and the expertise of our members. Recent consultations we have responded to include three Defra’s consultations on environmental targets, the green paper on nature recovery and the use of peat in horticulture, the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority’s management plan consultation. Hosting events for ecologists and policymakers The devolved nations' policy groups hold policy roundtables that bring together ecologists and policymakers. The BES Scottish policy group recently hosted a policy debate on National Parks in Scotland, the outcome of which will inform the group’s response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the same topic. The Welsh policy group will host an event early next year on biodiversity net gain and what it means for Wales. In addition, the BES policy team and policy groups hold expert workshops to inform specific key policy developments. Policy training for ecologists The BES hosts training workshops and produces training guides for early career ecologists with an interest in engaging with policy. We also write posts for our website to allow our members to stay up-to-date with the latest domestic and international environmental policy developments, including an upcoming post on the new Global Biodiversity Framework and its effects on UK devolved biodiversity policies. Policy fellowships The BES policy team offers fellowships to ecologists looking to expand their knowledge and experience of policy. The annual BES POST Fellowship gives the opportunity for an ecology PhD student to hone their ability to communicate scientific issues to policymakers by writing policy briefs and POST Notes. Next year we will work with Natural Resources Wales to offer a post-doc fellowship on regenerative agriculture in Wales. Other work at the BES BES Events The BES hosts Europe’s largest annual ecology conference and this year’s meeting will be held in Edinburgh in December, with ecologists attending from all over the world for talks, poster sessions and workshops on the latest developments in ecological science. In-person registration is sold out but it’s not too late to attend virtually. See our full events calendar here and past event recordings here. Sign up to their public engagement newsletter for the latest events, training, and funding opportunities in public engagement, schools outreach, and science communication. BES Special Interest Groups (SIGs) The BES has 19 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which are volunteer groups of ecologists focusing on a specific area of ecology, including agricultural ecology, conservation ecology and invasion science. SIGs organise meetings and events that unite ecologists working in those areas, and you can sign up to their mailing lists for developments and information on events. BES Publications The BES publishes seven ecology journals, which members have free access to, as well as Guides to Better Science and the Niche, a quarterly members’ magazine. Getting involved You can sign up to the English/Scottish/Welsh Policy Groups’ mailing lists for updates on their activities and future events. If you have any questions about the above or would like to get involved with the BES, feel free to contact the BES Policy Team at india@britishecologicalsociety.org. You can follow policy updates here and wider British Ecological Society on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and podcasts on SoundCloud.

We've been speaking to colleagues across the government in the lead-up to the Civil Service Climate and Environment Conference 2023 to discover the brilliant work they are doing to improve climate, environment and social justice policies in the UK and beyond. While we are unable to feature everybody on the day, you can follow this blog for regular insights on what we've learned. Air pollution: Addressing the top two environmental threats to human health - Cerise Reynolds, DEFRA's Noise and Statutory Nuisance Policy Team You probably have a fairly good idea that air pollution is harmful. It’s recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the biggest environmental threat to human health, and is associated with 7 million premature deaths worldwide every year. But did you know WHO classes noise as the next biggest environmental threat to our health in Europe? Even more surprisingly, noise is associated with many of the same health effects caused by air pollution. All too often, it’s the same communities which are affected by both, and in some cases, the solutions, can be the same. Here in Defra, we’re employing some of the same methods to manage both problems. There is overwhelming evidence of the debilitating effects of exposure to air pollution, with reduced life expectancy from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer. The government has estimated that the reduction in healthy life expectancy caused by air pollution is equivalent to 29,000 to 43,000 deaths a year in the UK, and exposure over just a few hours or days can have similar effects to long-term exposure. You might associate noise with sleep disturbance and annoyance, potentially leading to mental ill health – and you’d be right. However, there is compelling evidence linking long-term exposure to noise, like air pollution, with cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and strokes. Evidence also shows a link with metabolic disease, including another of national concern – diabetes. All told, the government estimates that the annual social cost in England of urban road noise alone is £7-£10 billion. Crucially, communities living close to busy roads are routinely exposed to high levels of noise as well as high levels of air pollution in the form of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Particulate Matter.5. This inevitably compounds other long term health inequalities, as these communities are often the ones most likely to be disadvantaged by a range of additional economic and social factors. In Defra, we are using cutting edge technology to address these challenges. The first step in addressing the problem is to identify and locate it. In the case of both air pollution and noise, Defra is using state of the art computer modelling to calculate from high quality source data the nature and extent of the problem. This then enables the relevant authorities to see where people are exposed to the highest noise and air pollution levels, and to prioritise their efforts accordingly. DEFRA's new noise model shows daytime noise exposure levels along with modelling objects, such as buildings. Our noise model in particular is an exciting breakthrough, modelling noise levels for every road and railway in England. We are aiming to make this model available to other government departments, public sector bodies and local authorities, to be used for scenario planning and improving national and local decision making around the cumulative impacts of noise. In the case of air quality, our modelling helps us target national funding to address the problem and measure the results. The Air Quality Grant Scheme provides access to funding for councils to deliver bespoke local projects to tackle specific local pollution sources. We have paid out over £10.7 million to 44 local authorities this financial year. We are also tackling NO2 hotspots by funding councils with £883 million to implement local NO2 reduction plans, including the introduction of Clean Air Zones (CAZs) in towns and cities across the country. And our public awareness campaign to encourage the cleanest and most efficient domestic burning practices is also ongoing. Of course, both these issues are cross-cutting ones, with decisions made in departments other than Defra having a significant potential impact across the country. If you’re interested in the links between your work and ours, contact us at noise@defra.gov.uk and air.quality@defra.gov.uk. Finding purpose in climate change work in government - Chris Paterson, Actuary at the Government Actuary's Department I am very much looking forward to meeting civil servants from across government at the Civil Service Climate and Environment Conference. Over the past few years, the Civil Service Environment Network (CSEN) has helped me align my advocacy for climate change action with my role as an actuary. At the conference, I hope to meet other people who have also tried to align their viewpoint on climate change to the work they do in the Civil Service. I’m also looking forward to meeting those who take a different viewpoint as that always makes for an interesting and sometimes mind-changing discussion. Finding my purpose I joined the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) in 2018 looking for more purpose in my work as an actuary. I found this purpose through my work on disaster risk finance where I work with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Centre for Disaster Protection and the World Bank. Some like-minded colleagues and I also formed an informal group to look at what actuaries in government could do to help tackle climate change. At that time, while there was lots of good work happening in this area in government, it felt harder for us to get involved at GAD. As actuaries, making assumptions about a very uncertain long-term future is challenging to do in a way that encompasses all potential risks and possibilities, including those which could be the result of climate change. We highlighted the right risks but didn’t always have the tools or knowledge to go further in a way that would help our clients in government as much as we wanted to. Skills and capacity Since starting the group over four years ago it has grown and developed and is now the area in GAD which has the most success in engaging other departments. Some of the colleagues I started the group with have left GAD to tackle the climate crisis in their own ways. However, as the group has evolved, we have built skills and capacity for us to advise in new areas of work. Collaborative working We have also been working collaboratively with other professions to develop areas in which our skills can help. As an example, one of my colleagues went to COP26 as part of an HMT team looking at private finance’s contribution to Net Zero goals. A growing area of activity for us is helping organisations to report on their climate risks and opportunities, as recommended by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The published roadmap sets out the expectation for TCFD reporting to be embedded across the UK economy by 2025. To do this effectively organisations need to estimate their future experience under a range of climate scenarios. As professionals specialising in long-term risk, actuaries are well-placed to advise here, and indeed at GAD we have already been helping public sector organisations with these issues. Roles and challenges You may come to the CSEN conference in a similar place to where I was five years ago. You may consider this an area you are passionate about but are trying to find out how you can make best use of your skills. Or perhaps you are a seasoned professional who has been on the front line of this for some time. Either way, this is a great opportunity for us to help each other on that journey, learning from each other about our different roles and challenges. To find out more about how GAD’s climate risk expertise can help your organisation contact us at climate.change@gad.gov.uk. The team improving our soil health - Eleanor Palmer, Grame Duggan and Rachel Boulderstone of DEFRA's Soil Team Healthy, functioning soil is the foundation of our natural capital resources. Soil underpins vital ecosystem service benefits and outcomes such as increasing biodiversity, carbon storage, and helping to mitigate climate change impacts such as flooding and drought. Improving and protecting agricultural soil promotes crop growth, crop quality and resilience to pest and disease, which overall increases crop yields and builds resilience for farmers and supply chains. Healthy soil also provides resilience to impacts from climate change by allowing water to infiltrate, thereby reducing run-off which helps prevent flooding, and storing water which increases resilience to drought, allowing aquifers to remain viable during prolonged dry seasons. Appropriate soil management, such as increasing soil organic matter (SOM), introducing cover crops and herbal leys, preventing soil compaction, and preventing contamination with chemicals and pesticides can all help to maintain good soil health. Protecting soil health in urban areas is also important as it underpins good quality green spaces, access to which improves health and wellbeing, while also providing biodiverse habitats. Ensuring soil is managed sustainably during construction can support soil-reuse and protect soil health. Tackling land affected by contamination also supports brownfield development, bringing it back to beneficial use and making our soil and water cleaner and safer. Key Soil Challenges Poor soil management and/or inappropriate land use has degraded much of England’s soil and reduced its ability to perform vital ecosystem services and functions. Soil degradation is estimated to cost up to £1.7 billion (Graves et al., 2015. Adjusted to 2022 prices) annually in England and Wales. This is mainly linked to loss of organic content of soils (47% of total cost), as well as compaction (39%) and erosion (12%). In England and Wales: · Almost 4 million hectares of soil are at risk of compaction · Over 2 million hectares of soil are at risk of erosion · Approximately 300,000 hectares of land are contaminated in the UK · Microplastics in soil are widespread, with unknown consequences Soil also acts as a significant terrestrial store of carbon. However, this soil carbon is vulnerable to loss from erosion during extreme weather events and disturbance from both urban and agricultural land management practices. Regaining this loss, soil carbon is a slow process and happens over time when soil is healthy and undisturbed. Without prompt action to improve soil health, England’s soil will continue to degrade through inappropriate management practices that lead to increased compaction, erosion, floods and landslides, loss of organic matter, contamination, and loss of soil biodiversity. Protecting soil health is very context specific depending on soil type, land use, and parameters such as bedrock geology and local climates. Soil is intrinsic to numerous policy areas where a balance of outcomes is required, for example, food production with environment protection. We need more robust data to be able to understand the current state of our soil, and how it is changing. How Defra is meeting these challenges The soil team consists of policy professionals, scientists, and analysts that feed into evidence-based policy advice and analysis on improving and protecting soil health, including remediating contaminated land and encouraging sustainable and cost-effective practices on agricultural land. Using a theory of change model, a strategic vision for improving England’s soil health has been devised. Through innovative workshops, a range of policy measures and outcomes were identified to better soil health, which will be outlined within the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP). Actions cover all soil types and land uses to improve and protect soil, so that it is valued, and to enable opportunities for unlocking private finance. This includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive that encourages a sustainable approach to farm husbandry and soil management, e.g. rewarding farmers for introducing herbal leys and grass-legume mixtures, or cover crops to help to build levels of SOM, improve soil structure for water and nutrient retention, and prevent soil erosion and compaction. We are also building a robust baseline of soil data from which we can monitor improvements in soil health, identify trends and support informed policy decisions. This includes the development of our healthy soil indicator that aims to help land managers and farmers track the health of their soil, including levels of SOM, and the impact of their management practices over time. This will work in tandem with the Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment, a new evidence programme to assess the condition and change over time of England’s ecosystems and natural capital. Once a baseline has been established, a potential future target could be considered under the Environment Act 2021. Smaller, better and greener: Our plan for government property - Stuart Burrows, Programme Director for Sustainability and Asset Performance at the Office of Government Property Government Property is on the brink of a huge transformation, and sustainability is right at the top of our agenda. Our teams in the property function aren’t unique in having that focus. Almost every area of government is working hard on making their work and their services more sustainable. What’s often not thought about is just how important property is to this agenda. The built environment is responsible for 40% of all emissions in the UK. Without a dramatic decrease in the emissions from the built environment, it’s impossible for us to achieve wider sustainability goals. Let’s consider some more facts that underline just how important property – and particularly government property – is in this journey towards a sustainable UK. The government manages more than 150,000 individual buildings across the country which – combined – are valued at more than £150bn Add in local government buildings and assets to this and the numbers more than double: over 300,000 buildings, at a value of more than half a trillion pounds The government property function manages, by some considerable distance, the biggest, most diverse and varied, property portfolio in the country. We all know how serious the impact will be if we don’t get this right. In late 2022, we published the new Government Property Strategy, which featured sustainability heavily. A core mission in the strategy (one of three) is creating a smaller, better, and greener public estate. The word ‘and’ is key in this: we don’t get to pick which of smaller, better, or greener we focus on in any particular property, we are committed to all three. The Government Property Sustainability Strategy Building on the property strategy is a dedicated new plan focused exclusively on making government property more sustainable. Our new Government Property Sustainability Strategy – the first coordinated property sustainability strategy the government has developed – sets out what we are going to do to make sure property plays its part in tackling climate change and improving the natural environment. We’re going to focus on four main pillars. Net zero emissions: dramatically reducing our carbon footprint Adaptation: protecting the estate from floods and other extreme weather Natural capital: driving improvements in our natural environment Resource efficiency: minimising waste and making the best use of natural resources. You can read our plan, alongside other helpful tools like our Net Zero Estate Playbook, on the property section of Gov.uk. Playing your part Our teams across the government property function will be leading on getting this done, but every area of government and every civil servant has a part to play. Consider your role as a civil servant - what opportunities do you have to push for more sustainable choices, whether that’s in procurement, policy or any kind of decision-making? Look out for opportunities to complete carbon literacy training to better understand your carbon footprint and potential areas where you could have the most impact. Be mindful of your daily activities and the choices you make in the workplace (and at home); this could include putting on a jumper to save on heating, cycling or using public transport, recycling your waste correctly, and many many more small interventions. What changes could you make personally to have the greatest impact? Finally, please think about how you can support us in delivery of the Property Sustainability Strategy - reach out to your organisation’s property team, or email us directly at the Office of Government Property. Welsh Net Zero Public Sector 2030: Challenges for social care - Joseph Wilton, Head of Wellbeing and Improvement at the Welsh Government Social Services and Integration Directorate In addition to its wider Net Zero 2030 Public Sector ambition, Welsh Government published a specific route-map for decarbonising social care. Social care has been identified as a "hot spot" for carbon emissions, with the majority of direct provision either being in care homes (which need to be maintained at a healthy temperature for vulnerable adults) or from domiciliary care agencies (which generally ask carers to drive in their own vehicles). Some people will also live in sheltered or supported accommodation, whereby they rent an apartment where care is provided on site. So, while the carbon emissions are relatively low intensity when compared to heavy industry, it is widespread, consistent and the service cannot be substantially changed or interrupted in the way it is provided. There is also much less data captured about social care’s carbon emissions. Local authorities will collect data on their general office use and fleet, it is hard to separate off the social care element from this. This becomes even harder when you consider that most of the care is being provided by private or third sector providers. These providers are commissioned by the local authority to provide care for people. These providers are not covered by the public sector plan, so they don’t need to be net zero by 2030. These providers vary considerable in size and capacity, and also in the physical makeup of any properties and their workforce. A problem is that, by commissioning the care, local authorities are responsible for the emissions being created by these providers. So they will have to either commission care from a carbon-neutral provider, or know what are the associated carbon emissions so that they can offset the emissions. To do this, the provider will have to have a ‘per person’ carbon emission estimate. This is not something they are currently equipped to do. People’s care varies considerably, and so to do the providers. Many care homes are not purpose built, they are potentially old, poorly insulated or using inefficient heating systems. Similarly, many domiciliary care agencies are operating in rural locations, visiting isolated people in a range of locations each day. This begs the question: should care be influenced by the associated carbon emissions? Coupled with this, the social care sector is very fragile. Providers are operating on very thin margins. They do not have the capacity to take on complicated data collection and estimation processes. Similarly, they don’t have the capital to be making significant investments in decarbonising their service. Lastly, with the current economic situation and rapidly rising energy costs, care homes and domiciliary care agencies are facing very real risk of not being able to meet basic running costs. Therefore, the pressure to provide support is more pressing then ever. What Welsh Government is doing is to set up a pilot grant scheme for care homes looking to undertake energy efficient improvements. This will involve care homes undertaking an energy audit and selecting the improvements which will make the biggest impact to their energy efficiency and reduce their energy demands. There is also work to explore innovative models of providing domiciliary care, potentially using fleet electric vehicles. This is all very early stages, and there is a lot more to do. However, the need is very real and urgent, so the pressure is on not just to decarbonise, but to keep the social care sector in Wales stable and able to continue despite the crises they face.

Since taking on the roles of the new CSCEN co-chairs at the start of April 2023, Charley, Chris, and Peter have been welcoming a new and enthusiastic group of colleagues to join our committee of around 40 volunteers, who will be running the Network over the next 12 months alongside their day jobs, to provide all our usual CSCEN content and deliver on our priorities. Please follow this link to meet our new 2023/24 CSCEN committee. Having watched membership increase rapidly in the previous 12 months, rising from roughly 3500 to 7800, this year we want to focus on expanding and refining our offer, in addition to pushing forwards with our mission to break down Government silos and build environmental knowledge and policy capability across the Civil Service.

Welcome to this 'Take a leaf out of my book' blog, where we explore the career journeys of some key movers in the environmental sector. Maraki Mikroudaki's role for the past eighteen months has been to provide strategic communications expertise and design the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) programme of activity for the United Nations COP26 summit, which took place in Glasgow in November 2021. CSEN asked Maraki about her career journey to date - including highs and any low points, challenges and accomplishments, and any things that have been unexpected or difficult. Why did you take this job? I absolutely love a challenge and even more so when we are talking about something new that hasn’t happened before. In this case, COP26 provided the opportunity to convene a satellite team of 90 people from across UKRI, its centres and some key investments to shape the first ever truly pan-UKRI programme of activity for COP. How did your previous career and/or experience help you achieve your current role? It was a moment in time where the universe conspired! I was at the time heading up the communications projects and events function at UKRI, so there was an immediate link in terms of the kind of work I was doing at the time. I’ve always worked in strategic communications and my background is in policy and political communication, so this international summit and the design of activity that plays to strategic ambitions was a good fit. What have been your main challenges to date in your career and how did you overcome them? Making a breakthrough and beginning to work in my own field is a key one. The first stumbling block was to deal with the many pre-conceptions recruitment agencies seemed to have about my heritage (I’m Greek) and the impact this had on the jobs they felt I would be best suited to. I felt a bit let down by the wider process, but I kept looking for new opportunities and haven’t stop moving since then. The second challenge, which I encountered many years later, was something called Imposter Syndrome. The most important mistake I made back then (apart from working myself to the ground, that is) was to not believe in myself and my abilities. So my advice is to never doubt yourself and in times like this when you are looking for answers, also look beyond your immediate self – explore the environment, including the people you interact with and the unique conditions you operate within. Looking back, what career advice would you give to yourself 10 years ago? Be conscious of managing upwards and people’s different management styles. The other side of this coin is knowing your working style and ethos. Develop a peer support network around you. I started a ‘Lean In’ circle a few years ago when I found myself in need of support and I felt that sharing experiences and problem solving in a safe space has been very useful. However relevant, or not, every job you do is a step in the right direction even if it doesn’t feel like that at the time. Don’t be afraid to experiment, especially if you don’t know exactly what you’d like to do in your career. Trying different things will provide you with experiences, which will in turn help you find the path you are looking for – nothing is wasted. There is a spark of leadership within us all, regardless of background, education, and how high or low we perceive ourselves to be in the corporate pecking order. Use your leadership qualities to shape new ideas, unlock opportunities and inspire others. Finally, bring your true self to work, no ifs no buts. Be true to yourself, to your values and what you have to offer. Work is where we learn some of life’s greatest lessons that shape who we are and how we carry ourselves in this world. Embrace it, learn, and grow from it. What are your career plans for the future and how do you aim to achieve them? My next venture is to capitalise on my entrepreneurial side in the coming years and create an opportunity to lead a small organisation. Looking forward to seeing where this idea takes me! How do you connect with nature? I run!! If you could visit one habitat on earth, where would it be? It would be the tropical rainforest of Corcovado in the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. What environmental books/articles/podcasts have you enjoyed recently? An article on the potential positive impact elections in Brazil could have on reversing the policies that are currently impacting global climate change. It is interesting to see the relationship between politics and climate and it is not new of course, but I always find it interesting. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Navigating fake content and green-washing to find reliable climate advice can be a minefield. Moira Nicolson, from the Cabinet Office Behavioural Science team, and Kenneth Hawthorn, from the Government Office for Science, investigate the challenges and how civil servants can help the public to stay well informed. Someone on social media claimed that tote bags are less environmentally friendly than plastic bags. A friend advised a homeowner against installing a heat pump in their home because they’d heard that heat pumps wouldn’t keep their home warm. A respected news outlet implied that the solution to climate change lies solely in divesting in fossil fuels. False or misleading stories about the solutions to climate change are everywhere. It’s natural to want to set the record straight by debunking them. But is this always the right approach? Research suggests not. Where there is smoke, there is fire: Debunking false stories about climate change spreads the lies further Whilst debunking and debate can be a good way of winning people over to alternative viewpoints, these strategies often backfire. To debunk false information, you must first repeat it, and then explain why the information is false or misleading. This amplifies the false information, spreading it to a wider audience, especially if it’s done via social media or another mass communications channel by an organisation or individual with a large following. But don’t people remember that the information was debunked? Often not. Debunking can also backfire by creating a false impression that there are two sides to a story, or that there is some unresolved controversy. This is especially true for information about novel products or services. For instance, if you are introduced to a new medical treatment through a campaign telling you that "there is no evidence that this treatment will lead to anaphylactic shock," you might ask yourself where the suggestion that it does lead to anaphylactic shock came from. “Don’t worry, this medicine won’t kill you”: What we can learn from countering health misinformation You'll rarely see UK public health communicators using their platforms to debunk misinformation. Instead, they focus on amplifying and promoting accurate information to help people make up their own minds based on trusted and reliable sources of information. One example is the COVID-19 vaccine. Most public health information shared evidence-backed information that the COVID-19 vaccine was “the best way to protect you and your family from COVID-19” rather than directly engaging with those who were sharing false or misleading stories that had no basis in science. So what does this mean for climate change misinformation? Climate misinformation is fuelled by the genuine challenges to reaching net zero Much of the misinformation surrounding climate change feeds off the fact that there are legitimate concerns about the equity effects of reaching net zero, as well as scientific debates about the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of different pathways to net zero. Take heating. Although heat pumps are the front running technology for heating in homes, most experts agree that reaching net zero will require a combination of technologies. The best solution for your heating will depend on where you live, the type of home you live in and other factors too. Consequently, the solution to decarbonising heating in homes is debated constantly, with people “debunking” one another endlessly on the merits of different technologies. However, if I’m an individual homeowner or business looking to protect myself from the impact of climate change, whether that’s rising energy prices or extreme weather events, I don’t need to see a debate about what the best approach is to reducing my bills or protecting my business from the impacts of droughts or floods. What I need is a straightforward summary of the pros and cons of different approaches to decarbonising my lifestyle or organisation and good signposting on how to go about achieving whichever option is best suited to me. In a context of constant debate (which is what debunking stimulates), what person or organisation wouldn’t want to throw up their hands in self defence and declare: if experts can’t agree on whether a tote bag is more environmentally friendly than a plastic bag, then what’s the point in me doing anything at all when I could just get it wrong and end up harming the planet rather than helping it? At the same time, oversimplifying information, or glossing over issues, especially in the early days of rolling out new technologies, won’t help either. If we approach everyone who expresses concern about the costs or efficacy of approaches to reaching net zero by telling them they are wrong (which is what debunking is), then we run the risk of driving people towards, rather than away from, the intentionally false information shared by those who believe they can profit from delaying action on climate change for as long as possible if not indefinitely. For example, although the UK has one of the most extensive rapid charging networks in Europe, some regions are better equipped than others. Telling someone living in an area with a below average concentration of electric vehicle charge points, that news stories about a lack of electric vehicle infrastructure is just fake news, is not going to win them over to buying an electric vehicle, as it won’t match up to their reality. Amplifying the truth So if not by debunking, how should we counter climate misinformation? The Climate Evidence and Transparency team at the Government Office for Science, together with the Behavioural Science Team in the Cabinet Office, has published the Wall of Beliefs: a toolkit for understanding false beliefs and developing effective counter-disinformation strategies to help government policymakers and communicators to counter misinformation First, use your knowledge and expertise as civil servants working on net zero to share and amplify accurate information. For example, BEIS recently partnered with the Energy Saving Trust to provide a trusted source of information about smart charging of electric vehicles and with the Energy Systems Catapult to develop a tool to help consumers work out if a heat pump could be a suitable choice for their home heating. Second, be transparent about limitations and trade-offs to reaching net zero. For example, when it comes to electric vehicle infrastructure, make it easy for people to identify how many chargepoints are near them and what type they are (see Zap Map). There is no advantage in having people purchase an electric vehicle they can’t charge, and then sharing this bad experience with friends, family and the Internet at large. Finally, address the limitations and trade-offs of net zero, either through policy levers and/or by amplifying the voices and communications of low carbon innovators who are solving many of the perceived “downsides” of going green. For example, government is already helping to extend the electric vehicle network so that more and more people can get an electric vehicle and charge it conveniently. Meanwhile, innovators like Climate Perks and Peddle My Wheels are addressing barriers to other modes of low carbon travel. We'd love to hear your feedback on using this toolkit and tackling climate change misinformation.

The Environment Agency and Plastic Champions Network's Lizzie Lewis and Lucy Smith share highlights from the network's latest panel event exploring the connection between positive environmental policy and social justice. Have you ever considered how faith and the environment are intrinsically linked? Or how climate justice is social justice? Last month the Plastic Champions Network (PCN), run by the plastic and sustainability team at the Environment Agency (EA), joined the Bahu Trust and the agency’s B.A.M.E Network to lead an intersectionality in the environmental sector webinar, encouraging people to think and act more inclusively when engaging and working with the environment. Kamran Shezad, the director for the Islamic foundation for Ecology and Environment Sciences and the sustainability lead for the Bahu Trust, shared how faith and the environment are inherently linked. He believes preservation of the environment is an act of worship. Kamran said many chapters in the Quran are named after nature, and ‘paradise’ is a place where nature flourishes. He added that, in the Bible, Noah built the arc to protect wildlife during the flood. It is our ecological systems that preserve the earth. Kamran also shared his successful campaign ‘Plastic Free Ramadan’, and you can read up on more of his campaign resources, such as ‘A Muslim’s Guide to Climate Change, Energy, and Food’. Ayo Sokale is part of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) President’s Future Leaders and a project team manager at the EA. Speaking about the recent environmental/flood disasters in Nigeria and Pakistan, Ayo drove home the message that climate justice is social justice. The floods highlighted that the fight for environmental justice is a fight for equality from all communities at disproportionate risk to environmental hazards. Affected communities could be at a disadvantage due to race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, immigration, gender, lack of land ownership, geographic isolation, education or/and occupation. Ayo is the also the founder of Plastic Free Caversham and has plenty of tips on reducing plastic use. Pandora Rene, a senior advisor in waste regulation at the EA, shared an inspiring story about her families’ involvement in the environmental development of the Seychelles. Pandora’s father (France-Albert René, former President of the Seychelles) aided the implementation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) allowing the Seychelles to conserve and manage their marine natural resources. In the Seychelles, plastic bags are banned, and plastic bottles will soon be banned. Mike Cuthbert (deputy director of planning, performance and strategy) and Kofi Renner (specialist in the risk assessment team in the Chief Scientist’s Group), both from the EA, joined the Q&A session. Kamran closed with advice on how to be an inclusive environmentalist. He advised people to take their time and embrace challenges rather than aim for perfection and recommended starting the conversation at home with friends or family. Here's how you can get involved with spreading the word... Diversify your social media to make your sphere more inclusive. Consider how to communicate environmental issues to different communities. See our plastic free celebrations guidance. Watch the short film ‘I am Capable', by Roxy Furman, following Amira Patel’s creation of a safe space for Muslim women outdoors. For access to resources, future events and PCN membership, email: plasticandsustainability@environment-agency.gov.uk

Sebastian Shelmerdine - assistant economist at HMRC - looks at the impact of banks on climate change and whether there is anything we can do to avoid being the unwilling financiers of global warming. Guest blogs are produced by our members and do not represent views of CSEN or the wider Civil Service. Most of us by now will be trying to lower our carbon footprint (I hope), but are the steps we are taking making any difference at all? In the past few years, we have seen charges introduced on plastic bags, bans on the use of plastic straws, and an influx of clothes marketed as ‘sustainable’. Yet carbon emissions are still rising , global warming is getting worse , and we are told more and more often that we must act now to avert a crisis. If we have taken all these steps, and things are getting worse, what could be the main driver of emissions that perhaps we are not aware of? Money makes the world go around, but in what direction is it spinning? In come the banks. The money you put into a bank does not just sit there waiting for it to be withdrawn. It gets used, among other things, in investments for projects and funds. The fossil fuel industry is one of the most profitable industries to invest in, and as a consequence, it attracts a lot of investment from banks that want to profit from this, without care for any negative externalities . To quantify this indifference, the 60 biggest banks have invested £2 .8 trillion into the fossil fuel industry since the Paris climate deal in 2015 alone . In a sense, you are funding global warming by having an account with banks that are heavy investors in the fossil fuel industry. The biggest culprits are here . The impact banks have on global warming cannot be understated. Out of all contributors to global warming, from eating meat, to not getting rid of rubbish in a sustainable manner, the largest is how we generate and consume energy. An astounding 73.2% of all greenhouse gas emissions comes from the energy sector. When so much investment is going into ‘dirty’ forms of generating energy, it is not difficult to see why we have increasingly worse weather disasters , or summers that are breaking records and causing disruptions due to extraordinarily higher temperatures. 2015 . 2016 . 2017 . 2018 . 2019 . 2020 . 2021 . What can I do to help? That is a very good question, and thank you for asking. Imagine if a bank used your money to invest, but shared your values; that invested only in projects and funds that had a sustainable focus, or that were aimed at the more marginalised members of society, such as promoting financial literacy among low-income households. Imagine if instead of money being funnelled into coal or gas, it was funnelled into clean energy initiatives. Where the main motivator of the movement of money is not simply to make more money, but to make money do good things, such as creating a cleaner environment. A bank that would do all of this and more, for us and for posterity. Banks like this exist, like Triodos . Having a Triodos Current Account for example, costs £3 a month (less than what you might spend on a cup of coffee each morning). Whereas an account with one of the big banks may not have a direct monetary impact on you, but as you can see above, there is a very real cost to banking with them. There is a non-exhaustive list here for other banks and institutions , and generally speaking building societies are ethical financial institutions to keep your savings. I now have an account with Triodos. They are transparent about where their money goes, and have one of the most ambitious carbon neutral plans out of all the banks. The transition was straightforward, I used the current account switch service (which took 7 days), and on the day of completion, I just switched to using my new card. The proof that ethical banking works is in the pudding, and the pudding is the shift it helps realise towards a greener future . Let us all try to make this pudding a little bigger. Use the Bank Green tool to see how your bank fares . If you’re interested in joining the Cabinet Office Green Network , get in touch at eleni.michopoulou@cabinetoffice.gov.uk Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. Do not take the information shared on this blog post as financial advice. Do your own research. The Cabinet Office Green Network is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with the companies listed in this blog, or any of their subsidiaries or their affiliates.

Civil Service Climate and Environment Network members can access free research projects, undertaken by social science postgrads from University of Bristol. These projects, which link postgrads from the MSc Society, Politics and Climate Change with professional partners, are supported by cutting-edge research and academic insight. Run by the University’s Professional Liaison Network (PLN), previous project partners include Defra, Bristol City Council, the European Commission, Welsh Government, Avon and Somerset Police, ONS, WECA, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the British Embassy Beijing and the NHS among many. All CSCEN members are invited to submit their research proposals by Friday 13 October. Research projects will run between March and September 2024 and will be free of cost to members. CSCEN members are invited to a 30-minute Zoom info session on Wednesday 16th August, 12pm. The PLN will give a brief introduction to the scheme and ways your organisation could benefit from a free research project. To attend the info session, register here https://buytickets.at/universityofbristol1/972820. For more information visit the PLN website or email fssl-pln@bristol.ac.uk Contribute to the CSCEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSCEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) analysis suggests a gap between climate commitments and climate delivery in the UK and includes 300 recommendations to help the government achieve its climate targets. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), a body formed under the Climate Change Act to advise the United Kingdom on tackling climate change, released its annual progress report earlier this year. The analysis suggests a gap between climate commitments and delivery and includes 300 recommendations with different sets of priorities to help the government achieve its climate targets. The key messages in the report include: A lack of urgency and slow delivery: The CCC found that the UK is acting with a lack of urgency on the delivery of the net-zero targets legislated in 2019. Decarbonisation plans and electricity: The report recognised that strong climate commitments have been made but progress falls short in areas like the decarbonisation of the electricity system. For example, when it comes to the installation of heat pumps, the government set a target of 600,000 installations annually by 2028, but the current installation rates are only one ninth of this. Expansion of fossil fuel production is not in line with Net Zero: The CCC underlined a need to move away from high-carbon developments like the Cumbrian coal mine. Policy development in targeted industries: Further policy development is required in areas such as the steel industry to deliver on decarbonisation plans. Land use policy development: Peatland restoration rates increased slightly in 2022 but improvements continue to fall behind the recommended rates. Similarly, tree-planting rates continue to be too low and are not increasing at the rate required. Rates will need to double by 2025 for the Government to reach its target of 30,000 hectares per year of woodland creation. Further policy development for peatland restoration and tree planting are required. Greenhouse emissions: UK greenhouse gas emissions increased by 0.8% since 2021 but remain 9% below pre-pandemic (2019) levels. It should be noted that the small increase was likely due to a relatively mild winter in 2022 and a behavioural response to the record-high gas prices that decreased the use of heating in households. The need for a framework to manage airport capacity: The CCC recommended that no airport expansions should proceed until a UK-wide capacity management framework is in place to assess annually and, if required, control sector CO2 emissions and non-CO2 effects. Commitments welcomed by the CCC: The CCC welcomed the commitment by the government to rebalance electricity and gas prices by spring 2024, which will support electrification. Similarly, the commitment to £20 billion funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS) was received positively. The CCC's assessment of progress can be summarised through the Monitoring Framework assessment against key indicators across different sectors, as shown in the image below: To end on a positive note, the CCC’s confidence in the UK being able to meet the Fourth Carbon Budget (2023-2027) has slightly increased in the last year. This is largely driven by an approximately 5% decrease in vehicle use following the pandemic, and transition to electric vehicles in the near term as sales continue to grow. Contribute to the CSCEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSCEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Tulika Gupta reviews the Dear Earth exhibition, which is on at the Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery until 3rd September Arts and Sciences have always been intrinsically linked. They are both means of investigation of the internal and external world. They both require a certain amount of imagination, reflection, creativity, visualisation, judgment and communication. I saw a brilliant example of this confluence at the Dear Earth exhibition at Hayward Gallery, London (ends on 3 September 2023). The exhibition follows topical themes of disparities between North-South economies, extraction of natural resources, indigenous rights, extinction, loss of biodiversity and hope in the time of climate crisis. The exhibition starts with Otobong Nkanga’s striking tapestry and ‘cause and effect’ scenarios resulting from the exploitation of natural resources. You also experience nature connectedness and loss of flora and fauna through use of vivid colours on paper by ecofeminist, Andrea Bowers. One is transported into a mythological experience through Himali Singh Soin’s film ‘we are opposite like that’ capturing an age of melting ice caps while connecting you to the Victorian colonial past with poetry and string quartet. Hito Steyerl throws light on carbon footprint of the technological world via an LED screen constructed from empty bottles and crates, which displays bright colours generated due to the bio electric signals from the plants growing behind the wall. Revolutionary Agnes Denes interdisciplinary approach to science and art is put to ecological use through works such as The Living Pyramid. Artists Aluaiy Kaumakan and Richard Mosse heartfelt works on indigenous communities of Paiwan and Yanomami, respectively are a must watch. One of my favourites was Daiara Tukano’s patterns that connect you to the visions of her people, Yépá Mahsã (widely known as Tukano) when on Kaphi, depicting experiences of nature connectedness beyond normal human capabilities. I truly enjoyed Imani Jacqueline Brown’s illuminating work on the oil extraction in the state of Louisiana and its repair through pan-African traditions. The other artists works were equally transformational, and I would recommend you go for it! The Dear Earth Exhibition is on at the Southbank Centre until 3 September 2023: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/dear-earth

This article is part of our 'Spotlight on Policy' series. Defra’s 'Plan for Water' can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-water-our-integrated-plan-for-delivering-clean-and-plentiful-water In April of this year, Defra published its 'Plan for Water', which is to act as a blueprint for national efforts to meet its targets on water quality and water resources. The Plan for Water aims to improve infrastructure and drive investment to improve resilience and tackle pollution in English waters. Included in the Plan is the commitment to reduce storm overflow discharges[i] in an effort to tackle the issue of sewage and wastewater polluting the nation’s rivers and seas. Background In January 2018, Defra published its 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP), in which the department committed to ensuring that 75% of water bodies reach near natural state as soon as is practicable (an ambitious target, seeing that the current number is around 16%). The first review of this plan, the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (EIP), reiterated the department’s priority to deliver clean and plentiful water, and set out the first steps of the reform programme for the water system. The Plan for Water is key to delivering the water goals of the 25YEP and EIP, and outlines the actions that are needed to meet the targets they set out. It is also key to the delivery of the 2021 Environment Act, which established 4 legally binding long-term targets for water centred on reducing water body pollution and reducing the use of public water supply in England. The Plan is also a response to a range of public and political pressures, as well as the pressures caused by both population growth and climate change. Specifically, the latter entails the prospect of lower water supply in hotter summers and more pollution washing into rivers due to wetter winters. The Plan’s Key Goals, and How They Will Be Achieved The Plan for Water outlines 3 key goals: transforming the management of the whole water system; delivering a clean water environment for nature and people; securing a plentiful supply of water. It states that it will achieve these through increased investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement: The Plan for Water outlines £1.6 billion of investment in new infrastructure – this number has now risen to £2.2 billion following a recent Ofwat announcement. This will go towards 33 infrastructure schemes, and primarily towards improving storm overflow infrastructure (which will see £1.7 billion worth of investment). Other investment includes the second round of the £10 million Water Management Grant, which will be made available to help farmers build reservoirs and irrigation equipment, and increasing slurry grant funding to £34 million (up from £13 million). Examples of stronger regulation include enabling Ofwat to link water company dividend payments to environmental performance, as well as banning the sale of wet wipes containing plastic (subject to consultation) and new restrictions of ‘forever’ (PFAS) chemicals (highly persistent chemicals found in lots of day-to-day products). It also involves funding Environment Agency (EA) inspections of wastewater treatment works. The Plan also sets out its intention to change the law to increase the maximum amount the EA can penalise water companies for damaging the environment.[ii] This is alongside other measures that ensure that the Plan is underpinned by tougher enforcement, such as a new Water Restoration Fund which will channel fines from water companies straight into projects that improve the water environment (rather than going back to HMT). Delivery The Plan sets out a number of policy actions and sub-actions to drive its delivery. Key to the delivery is the catchment plan approach. This involves working with local groups to tailor delivery to the local level – for example, through identifying where direct investment can have the best impact in each catchment area – and is designed to make the Plan more effective on the ground.[iii] The Plan also outlines its intention to integrate itself with other environmental and government delivery plans, with Civil Service policy teams currently looking at how these plans can all work together. The Next Steps The Plan for Water adopts a wide-ranging approach that looks to tackle the problems facing the water sector by addressing the system as a whole, rather than focusing on individual issues. As such, it will require buy-in from a number of key stakeholders, including other government departments, regulators, the public, businesses, and water companies. The Plan covers a 5-year period – the same as the EIP. Ofwat have stated that work on infrastructure schemes will begin in the next two financial years. Higher penalties on water companies will be in place by the end of this year. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to do in the water policy space. Perhaps this will include further consideration of customer bills: the Plan will have no effect on bills before 2025, however it is unclear how they will be affected in the longer term. Moreover, the progress of the Plan rests on water company buy-in, not least in obeying the law. For policymakers, these challenges lead inevitably to questions about the current structure of the water sector, and how to effectively define and regulate the public-private relationship moving forwards. [i] Storm overflow discharges prevent the flooding of sewage systems by releasing wastewater into rivers and seas – see this Ofwat explainer for more information: https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/about-us/ofwat-and-the-environment/pollution-and-water-quality/storm-overflows-explainer/. [ii] The EA has launched a consultation on this, see: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consultation-launched-on-unlimited-fines-for-the-worst-polluters. [iii] In short, a catchment area is an “area of land through which water from rain, melting snow, or ice, drains into a body of water such as a river, lake, or reservoir” (The Plan for Water, p.21). Contribute to the CSCEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSCEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Defra’s Environment Science and Analysis division has recently published the 2022 edition of its outcome indicator framework, which details changes in the environment. Eddie Childs provides an update on what the framework includes and details on a new feature. After months of writing, hundreds of meetings with evidence professionals and policy colleagues, and a lengthy review process, the 2022 update to the 25 Year Environment Plan Outcome Indicator Framework has been published. This year’s edition is the most comprehensive yet, with 50 of the 66 indicators now reporting data, and additional information has been provided on progress towards publication of the remaining 16. Since the launch of our data dashboard, we are also reaching a wider audience than ever before, and our latest report has been refined to enhance accessibility, by facilitating screen-reading software usage and accessible colour palates. The latest data Our five new indicators reporting this year provide more detail on the health of our fish stocks (see C11: Productive seas: status of sensitive fish and shellfish stocks), greater insights into how close we are to nature (see G3 ‘Enhancement of green/blue infrastructure’, G6 ‘Environmental attitudes and wellbeing’ and G7 ‘Health and wellbeing benefits’) and the UK’s international environmental impact is in part reported in K1 ‘Overseas environmental impacts of UK consumption of key commodities’. The publication of new indicator data this year is of enhanced value to public policy-making in the context of the Environment Act 2021 and in the production of the new Environmental Improvement Plan, which further strengthens the need for strategic environmental monitoring evidence. The framework continues to be a critical data source for informing progress against the 25 Year Environment Plan and the recent establishment of the Office for Environmental Protection sees another key customer of the environmental trends we report. Our new indicator assessment We are constantly on the lookout for ways to innovate and make our data more accessible. You may have seen last year's CSEN blog post ‘Why is an environmental dashboard like a wheeled suitcase?’, where we shared our data dashboard. This year, a multidisciplinary evidence team has been hard at work developing a scientifically sound and statistically robust quantitative assessment approach to help identify high level and simple to understand categorisations of environmental change. In previous years, the framework has provided a short summary of the environmental trends observed in indicator data series. In this year’s report, we have built upon this earlier approach to simply state whether observed changes are understood to demonstrate an environmental improvement or a deterioration in the short, medium, or long term. While this may appear a simple addition on the surface, it is the product of robust novel statistical analysis and is intended to offer additional understanding from our available data, to better inform policymakers, parliamentarians and the public on progress towards achieving the goals of the 25-year plan. What’s next? We will continue to refine and improve the outcome indicator framework, assessment methodology and online dashboard with iterative updates. In future, a full review of the framework’s constituent indicators will be undertaken to ensure that it continues to be relevant and provides the best and most cost-effective ways of assessing progress. Please take a look at our report and if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, feel free to get in touch! We would particularly welcome any feedback on the usefulness and value of the framework’s experimental statistics, which are highlighted in section A of the report. You can reach us at 25YEPIndicators@defra.gov.uk.

Sara Ronayne, an actuary at the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD), recently helped produce a guide for users of TCFD disclosures as part of a working party comprising actuaries and sustainability specialists. Here she explains why Covid-19 can act as a wake-up call for climate risk management. Climate change is considered by many to be one of the greatest future threats to our global society. Hearteningly, around the time the Covid-19 crisis began, it felt like there was a real momentum building in relation to climate risk management. Aided by policy and regulatory developments, climate risks were increasingly being seen on the agenda of government departments, pension schemes, insurers and other organisations. Then came coronavirus. The pandemic created a host of challenges for our society and economy, many of which we continue to grapple with. However, it is also a valuable learning opportunity which we can harness to improve our climate risk management practices going forward. Consequences of a crisis Despite being fundamentally a health crisis, Covid’s systemic and cross cutting impacts paralysed not just our health systems, but also much of our education and travel networks as well as the wider business economy. The widespread disruption that ensued resulted in significant immediate financial burdens, as well as increased long-term uncertainty. In response, central government implemented extensive financial packages to support individuals, small businesses and large corporations affected by the pandemic. Local authorities have also faced difficulties. Many have seen reduced income, including lost business rates and council tax holidays, coinciding with higher expenditure from dealing with the crisis. These have created further strains on often already stretched balance sheets. Climate parallels Climate change, famously coined by former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney as the ‘Tragedy of the Horizon’, is also a significant systemic risk. Its wide-ranging physical implications include rising temperatures and increased incidences of flooding and natural disasters. In addition, our expected transition to a net-zero carbon economy will necessitate huge structural shifts across our economy. Even if we knew the temperature outcome to expect, the highly interconnected nature of climate risks makes it impossible to predict with any certainty what future exposures central government and local authorities may face. And as Covid has highlighted, the financial implications of systemic risks can be immense. Scenario analysis When making sense of uncertainty of this scale it can be difficult to know where to start. This is where scenario analysis can help. Scenario analysis is a risk management tool often used by actuaries. It works by utilising horizon scanning to identify plausible examples of what our future might look like. Modelling and analysis techniques can then establish the financial risks and opportunities associated with each climate ‘scenario’. This information is used to inform the strategic planning and decisions organisations make. Wide relevance This technique is particularly powerful as it can be adopted by a range of stakeholders. Examples can range from specialised analysis of pension schemes and insurers, to macro level analysis of central government or local authority finances. This wide relevance has helped make scenario analysis a key aspect within the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations. TCFD recommendations are supported by more than 1,000 organisations globally including governments, central banks, regulators, asset managers and asset owners as well as a range of industries. The number of organisations who disclose under TCFD is growing rapidly. According to a recent survey by the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association, over a quarter of local government pension scheme funds are already working to align with TCFD recommendations. The government is also consulting on plans to make these requirements mandatory for larger pension schemes. Wake-up call For central government, local authorities, and our wider economy, the coronavirus crisis needs to be a wake-up call for climate risk management – both in the sense of action required to tackle the climate emergency and reinforcing the need to plan for the future risks it brings. Our experiences of Covid can teach us about the danger of systemic risks, and the important role early risk management can play in response. We must use this knowledge to build on past climate risk management momentum, and to ensure the risks of climate change remain firmly on the future agendas for all organisations. This blog was originally published by Inside Government on 9 October and can be found here. Want to find out more? Our CSEN November monthly talk will consider how countries can be better prepared for climate disasters. This is part of a two-day free virtual event hosted by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) and CSEN. This event considers the government’s climate challenge and how risk management can help. Speakers include HM Treasury, the Committee on Climate Change, GAD, and several external academics/specialists. In addition to our monthly talk, CSEN members are welcome to attend any or all sessions of the main event. Sign up for all sessions via this online flyer, or register directly for the CSEN talk.

Polly Lord, Policy Lead for Local Government Environment and Levelling Up Parks, shares her proposal for making the UK the most sustainable place in the world Why would we? Why should we? These were the questions I posed myself when ministers asked me to come up with a bold vision for our urban green spaces. Working in a cross-cutting policy area, predominantly focusing on climate change but with responsibility for local government and environment issues, I know we need both bold statements and bold answers. The latest warnings coming from scientists this week (w/c 9 May) are that we are hurtling towards the 1.5c global warming figure that we must stay away from. But our civic society has also shifted. Town and city centres, once the economic hearts and focal points for communities, are in decline, yet 82.9% of the English population live in urban areas. As retail moves online, and workers adopt hybrid patterns, these places need a new future. What if town centres were based on economic enterprise alongside environmental goals? How can we align our need to level up while getting down to net zero? Taken by the idea of green – everywhere – I did what any sensible Civil Servant would do. I had “a chat”. I chatted to colleagues in our housing teams, in regeneration and building. I liaised with architects, planners, and landscape designers. I spoke to DEFRA, to Natural England, even to HMT. Together, we came up with a proposal to become “the greenest country in the world”. The vision Becoming “the greenest country in the world” would need a significant increase in blue and green infrastructure in our urban areas, using innovative technology in harmony with our natural environment. Green roofs and walls to increase vegetation and help with water management would apply energy-efficient construction technologies and lead to greener and more beautiful buildings. New hydroponic plant spaces could be created in disused buildings, tree-covered pedestrian walkways could connect places, and town centres could be reconfigured around a destination green space. Green spaces would become safe spaces for all, in day and night. Such a vision goes further: into our national identity and pride in our natural and urban places. It is an update of Blake’s “green and pleasant land” for the urban landscape of the future; one rich with biodiversity that showcases UK innovation, heritage, skills and curiosity. It celebrates our iconic city and town places, reflecting our local landscapes rich in history and championing them alongside the natural world. Our great historical city centres were built on the industrial revolution; cities of the future are built on its green counterpart The reality In reality, my guess is that it would cost an ambitious £50 billion to deliver all of this. But I’m not the first or only voice urging for a radical reframing of our urban centres. Sir James Bevan, the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, gave a speech on exactly this topic last year. He concluded: “I can sum up in only six words how our future cities should be: green and blue - and just too.” There are also places already working on developing such as vision. Stockton-on-Tees, for instance, plans to replace half its high street with a £37m riverside park.[1] Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council/Ryder – The Guardian [online] Meanwhile, Nottingham has announced a £500m redesign of its shopping centre, including plant greenery around its current structures. Artist impression of the new Broad Marsh shopping centre in central Nottingham - The Guardian [online] The potential The idea of actually making the UK the greenest country in the world is, of course, a step too far. But that wasn’t the point of the proposal. The point was to cast off the shackles of group thinking, to grab a concept and play with it, and explore the art of the possible. For many of us Civil Servants working in – or interested in – the environment, our work can often feel, well, hopeless. Not quick enough, not cheap enough, not impactful enough. We can feel stymied and siloed; lost in a fog of impending global doom. But every single colleague, from every single team and every single department that I approached embraced the vision. They questioned it, naturally, but they got behind the spirit of the ask and we prepared a proposal that was actually deliverable. My deputy director signed it off. My DIRECTOR signed it off. So, what does this tell us for the future? Well, it tells us that, while we may not be investing £50 billion in putting greenery on every building in our cities quite yet, becoming the greenest country in the world only takes a bunch of fantastic Civil Servants, a dose of creativity, a willingness to be open and collaborate, and an opportunity to think bold. Not that much at all. Contribute to the CSEN Blog If you're interested in contributing to the CSEN Blog, get in touch with us at environment.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. We'd love to hear your ideas!

The Environment Agency's Hannah Amor tells us about the Plastic Free July movement and how you can become part of the pollution solution. Kicking plastic out of sport during Plastic Free July Everyone can play a part in Plastic Free July: the global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution. It has inspired over 326 million participants in 177 countries, and you can make a difference by joining the Environment Agency’s plastic and sustainability team and pledging to reduce the amount of avoidable plastic you, your club, team or events use. Plastic in sport I remember watching my mum run her first half marathon and, even aged eight, I was surprised to see everybody throwing their rubbish to the floor as they ran the course. At that age I had already been taught that littering was wrong. Why was it different when you ran a race? Attending rugby matches, aged 12, with my dad, I was yet again surprised to see the amount of litter left behind in the stadium. Are we also not taught to take our litter away with us? But, despite these issues, sport has the power to influence thousands of people that may otherwise not engage with environmental issues. Three billion people watched the Tokyo Olympic games in 2020, for example, which would be a huge platform to showcase sustainability and make it the new norm for people taking part in, and watching, sport. The plastic issue It is estimated that 12 million tonnes of plastic enter our environment each year (Jambeck et al., 2015), which is equivalent to a bin lorry load every minute. Of all the plastic produced, 50% is for single-use plastic items (Garside 2019); things that are used for only a few moments and then thrown away. To me, these are alarming statistics, but I also know I contribute to those statistics. We know that there is a pressing global need to tackle the climate emergency, and everybody has their part to play. Reducing avoidable plastic waste is a great stepping stone in the right direction. By minimising resource consumption, we are reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, directly reducing our carbon footprint. Kicking plastic out of sport While it may seem daunting at first to think about how you or your club can reduce plastic, we must start somewhere. The good news is that we can all do something to reduce our plastic footprint just by thinking small and tackling items one at a time. A great place to start is by making a pledge to reduce use of one item of avoidable plastic, which can help give you focus and a timescale to work towards. The Environment Agency’s plastics and sustainability team has teamed up with the Big Plastic Pledge, run by Olympian Hannah Mills to help everyone achieve their sustainability goals. Please join us by making your own pledge online. It is important to remember that everyone is on a sustainability journey. Nobody is doing it perfectly, but by trying and showing willing, you can make a difference. Through sport, you can encourage others to make a difference, too. As part of the Preventing Plastic Pollution project the plastic and sustainability team has also created some great practical guidance including case studies to help venues, events and grassroot clubs take steps to reduce their avoidable plastic waste. You can download the guidance on the Preventing Plastic Pollution website. Nelson Mandela said: "Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.” So, when will you pledge to kick plastic out of sport?

CSEN has been branching out with its themes this year and we're looking forward to exploring a month of space topics next Spring. Francesca Gosling provides an introduction to the work of the UK Space Agency and why protecting the environment beyond Earth is a top priority. The final frontier. The fifth element. The Aether. The most common synonyms we use to illustrate space convey a sense of mysterious vastness; of an “otherness” far beyond the barriers of our human experience. Even actor William Shatner’s description of bursting through the Earth’s atmosphere on board the Blue Origin space shuttle last year, and catching a glimpse of the other side, as a “cold, dark, black emptiness…deep, enveloping, all-encompassing,” creates the chilling sense of a powerful enormity that we couldn't possibly hope to harness for our own gain. And yet, humanity has accepted the challenge. Why do we need space? For most of us, our daily lives could not function without the satellite systems we use to communicate with each other, navigate, broadcast, work, shop and, on a national level, defend ourselves. Earth observation technologies are increasingly being used to monitor weather patterns and climate change, helping authorities around the world to forecast and plan ahead in the face of natural disasters. Scour the skies on a very clear night and you might see the International Space Station (ISS), home to international astronauts since 2000, zooming (apparently) among the stars. In the UK alone around 47,000 people are employed in the space sector, generating approximately £16.5 million for our economy and contributing to humanity’s commercialisation of the space that surrounds the tiny planet that we call home. But the word “commercialisation” can conjure the image of greedy business giants, consumerism, pollution and general irresponsibility. Often with good reason. What's the damage? Our activities in space over the last 60+ years, while ground-breaking and life-changing, can be messy. Orbital congestion - growing numbers of satellites and spacecraft fighting for room in lower Earth orbit (LEO) - and floating debris are among the biggest challenges facing the space industry. What we define as space debris counts everything from minuscule flecks of paint chipped off spacecraft, to tools dropped by astronauts conducting ISS maintenance work, to whole spent rocket bodies and satellites that have reached the end of their lives. And there are about 130 million pieces of debris up there, whizzing through LEO at a mind-bending 15,700 miles per hour. Crashes at that speed can be catastrophic, and the rapidly rising numbers of spacecraft launching into space makes them ever more likely. With 1,700 satellites launched last year alone, the need to safeguard the space environment for the benefit of everyone on Earth has never been more pressing. What can we do about it? This is why the UK Space Agency – the government’s executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to deliver the National Space Strategy – is leading an international charge on space regulation and investing in technologies dedicated to ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of space activity. The agency has committed £102 million over the next three years to deliver capabilities to track objects in space and reduce debris, and last month handed an initial £4 million to two companies designing missions that will remove hazardous space junk from outside the atmosphere, known as "active debris removal", or ADR. The UK government has also joined a swathe of countries in promising not to destructively test direct ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missiles – in other words, not to deliberately blow things up in space – and in June announced its first ever Plan for Space Sustainability that includes a raft of measures to ensure space-focused companies adopt best practise. The hope is to set a global example that not only encourages other space-faring nations to join the cause, but makes the UK a more attractive place to operate and invest, helping to unlock sustainable private investment, grow the space sector, and open up more high-skilled jobs and STEM education opportunities across the country. If our reliance on, and ambitions for, the space sector are to continue skyrocketing (pun only slightly intended) and the UK grows its influence as a global hub of satellite design, manufacturing and launch, we must also lead on efforts to make space a safe and more sustainable place for generations to come.