Investment of £8.8 billion needed for Peterborough to meet a 2040 net zero target

Peterborough City Council is commencing a project which aims to accelerate its carbon reduction and achieve its net zero target.

The council secured the support of Energy Systems Catapult to produce a Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) in December 2022 at no cost to the authority. This plan models the current and future energy demands of the city.

At a city council climate change and environment scrutiny meeting on Wednesday, March 12, a new project named LAEP Phase Two was presented to the committee.

Although still at the early stages of development, the project aims to explore the opportunity to procure a partner to deliver citywide transformative net zero projects.

It is hoped that this will bring investment into the city and drive forward carbon reduction at scale and pace.

In a report put before the committee on Wednesday, it stated that a capital investment of £8.8 billion into Peterborough would be required to meet a 2040 net zero target.

The report adds: “This expenditure can only be realised from multiple sources including private investment, residential home upgrades and grants. The vast investment required to tackle carbon emissions necessitates that the city explores transformative approaches to project delivery, without burdening the public purse.”

LAEP Phase Two will build on the experience of other councils running similar projects, including Bristol City Council which has procured a 20-year commercial partnership to deliver net zero projects across the city.

Bristol’s project is expected to enable the delivery of over £1 billion of investment, £424m of which is to be spent in the first five years, according to the Peterborough City Council report. This includes more than 1,000 new jobs, apprenticeships and work placements.

At the committee meeting on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat councillor Ann Shaheed asked how confident the council is that it could attract a similar amount of investment as somewhere like Bristol.

Hannah Swinburne, climate change manager at the council, responded: “In this first period, we are really looking to explore that to make sure we do the due diligence and make sure there is interest in the market for bringing something forward like Bristol has done.

“What we are proposing here has very little financial risk. This is just an outline of what we propose to do with much more information to be brought forward for councillors in time.”

The meeting heard that Peterborough City Council’s carbon emissions have reduced by 28.6 per cent since 2018/19, when the council declared a climate emergency.

Explaining the £8.8 billion figure needed to achieve net zero in Peterborough by 2040, Ms Swinburne said: “The £8.8 billion will come from a variety of different sources.

“What that doesn’t take into account is what we already spend as residents and businesses etc in the city. We will already be putting in a significant amount of money in.

“It’s not necessarily an additional £8.8 billion, it is just that as a city we already invest significantly into our energy systems.

“The benefit of the Bristol City Council project is that it builds up that local supply chain and enables them to develop jobs, and that has started to happen in Bristol.

“The Peterborough economy actually has quite a significant value and the £8.8 billion number doesn’t look as scary when you look at it over a period of decades.”

Councillor Zameer Ali asked if the LAEP Phase Two project is realistically achievable.

Ms Swinburne said: “That is why we’d like to spend the next few months exploring that question. It has been achievable across Bristol.

“If it is achievable, then we’ll be in a good position to be one of the first fast followers come this time next year.”