Steps to implement Net Zero Delivery Tracker and Net Zero Investment Plan

Please read ToR for full details.

Background

Net Zero Delivery Tracker

WWF-UK has developed a Net Zero Delivery Tracker and applied it to three UK fiscal events, with the results launched through a series of reports and presented at events and workshops. WWF-UK has used this proof of concept to advocate for government to adopt a Tracker, based on this methodology.

The Tracker enables assessment, at each Budget or Spending Review of:

Total positive, negative, and neutral spending in relation to priority environmental areas.

Carbon emissions impact of individual line items and of the overall fiscal event.

The extent to which this emissions impact is compatible with a stated emissions pathway to net zero.

Net Zero Investment Plan

The Net Zero Delivery Tracker helps assess the alignment of public tax and spending with net zero. However around 75% of the investment for net zero, and a substantial amount of the required emissions reductions, is likely to come from the private sector.

A second mechanism is therefore needed to understand whether this private investment is happening at the speed and scale required and ensure that government is putting in place the policy, regulation, and incentives to unlock it and the resultant emissions reductions.

WWF-UK's suggested approach to achieving this is through a Net Zero Investment Plan (NZIP), a concept which we have developed in conjunction with a range of businesses and civil society organisations.

The NZIP would be comprised of two elements:

An independent body would be tasked with tracking public and private net zero financial flows on an ongoing basis and recommending actions that government could take to tackle market barriers.

Government would, in consultation with business, produce a series of sectoral roadmaps, setting out the actions that they will take to leverage in private investment for net zero and ensure each sector is aligned with the necessary carbon reduction pathway. These roadmaps would ladder up to an overarching, economy-wide plan, which would also identify and address cross-sector dependencies and issues. Both the roadmaps and the economy-wide plan would be regularly updated.

To facilitate rapid delivery of both asks, WWF-UK is commissioning a step-by-step guide to how they could be introduced within the first months of any new government.