The programme has two challenge areas:
- Thriving Places – providing support to local authorities, their partners and communities to overcome non-technical systemic barriers to the scaling and adoption of net zero solutions.
- User-Focussed Products – Supporting business to better understand and respond to the needs, opportunities and barriers that are preventing the large-scale roll out of net zero solutions.
The Thriving Places Challenge, with the Pioneer Places Awards, has now been released. Full details can be found here.
This challenge area aims to help places to open those markets by removing the systemic barriers to demand, drive widespread business growth and innovation across the economy, and unlock significant additional private investment to enable true levelling-up both between and within places.
Many of the immediate solutions needed to transition places to net zero already exist. However, challenges are often encountered when interfacing with public infrastructure and policy or require coordination across systems. We recognise that local authorities can directly address or influence up to 30% of our total carbon emissions, and help facilitate even more, through their influence in planning decisions, policy setting and defining local goals.
The Pioneer Place awards are aiming to support those places who are actively delivering their net zero plans; have a deep understanding of the systemic barriers to scaling and adoption and are willing to demonstrate and share innovative approaches to overcoming these barriers…Read more
