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The 2024 Net Zero Census report is delivered by the UK Business Climate Hub coalition, managed by Broadway, in partnership with Planet Mark, and analyses the experiences and opinions of over 2000 UK businesses grappling with the path to net zero.

We have a newly elected Labour government which a huge majority of over 200 seats. So what does this mean for sustainability and for Broadway? Comparisons have been drawn with the New Labour landslide of 1997, though the more accurate parallel may be the Wilson government of the 1960s: elected on the promise of modernising the economy through a government-business partnership and playing to our scientific strengths, yet faced with a challenging economic environment. What to expect from a Labour govt? People We anticipate no changes as the Shadow Cabinet becomes the government, but we will update and confirm as necessary as the news unfolds. Net Zero: We expect Ed Miliband to be back in the role he left in 2010. Miliband is well known to us as he is to many of you. Starmer has talked of keeping Ministers in post for sustained periods to bring more stability to government, so it is possible that he will be leading on net zero for the next 5 years. In his team the key minister is likely to be Kerry McCarthy as Climate Minister. Those of you at our Parliamentary Reception back in January will remember her speech in which she expressed support for Broadway, and we have discussed with her both the role of the Net Zero Council and our wider net zero work. We have strong relationships with Mr Miliband’s advisors. It is also rumoured that Chris Skidmore may be appointed to some sort of net zero role; members may remember the session we ran with him as part of his net zero review for the last government. Environment: We expect Steve Reed to be confirmed as Defra SoS, with Daniel Zeichner, whom we know well, as Minister of State. We have ongoing dialogue with Defra policy officials in both the Labour Party and the department itself, to make sure we are ready to work with the incoming government on their nature priorities. MIssions Starmer is championing mission-led government and has set five missions in particular, the two most relevant to Broadway being ‘become a clean energy superpower’ and ‘kickstart economic growth’. “Mission-led government’ refers to a focus on outcomes over process and may result in the creation of ‘mission boards’ with authority to pursue these goals across departments. Below the Net Zero and Growth Mission Boards the outlines of possible structures are emerging: a statutory Industrial Strategy Council, possibly an ‘Office of Net Zero’, and a National Wealth Fund expected to crowd in private finance to support the industrial strategy and clean energy missions. Steve Reed has talked about a need for a stronger partnership between Government, stakeholders and communities to deliver environmental goals, and Broadway stands by to deliver trade association engagement. Agenda On net zero, Labour is likely to focus heavily on decarbonising electricity in order to meet its extremely ambitious target: to fully decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030. New Ministers will want to move quickly to show this is achievable, while coming under pressure in 2025 to flesh out their longer term plans. Recent court judgements mean they must publish a new net zero strategy by May next year and they will also need to respond to the CCC’s proposed 7th Carbon Budget. On industrial decarbonisation, the National Wealth Fund is earmarked to support industrial sectors, with an emphasis given to the roles of CCS and CBAM. On the wider environment, the priorities are less clear. A Land Use Framework is the one clear specific manifesto commitment and is likely to be an immediate priority, with Steve Reed outlining other policy proposals in the press during the campaign. Broadway is looking forward to working with the new government to identify ways in which our coalition of business and trade associations can help join up the environment policy landscape and translate goals and targets into relatable, realistic and effective action on the ground. What it means for Broadway Broadway exists to create the collaboration mechanisms and policy frameworks to enable business to combine economic growth with delivering society’s environmental and climate goals. That goal remains unchanged, and like many of you we have spent recent months having extensive conversations with Shadow Ministers and advisers, discussing with them how our work relates to their desire to work with business to deliver the Green Prosperity Plan. There are clear opportunities ahead: Labour has both a desire to work closely with business and is likely to be keen to do this through formal structures. This instinct will support our aim of joining up and simplifying the business/government dialogue on green issues. Our strong relationship with both officials and the NGOs from whom Labour is likely to seek input will be invaluable. Immediate steps As a Broadway member, you will shortly receive a briefing outlining our immediate approach to the new government, and inviting your engagement. The briefing will cover opportunities to question officials and contribute to early communications, and provide an overview of our priority policy areas. We will mobilise and represent our members and supporters as we move forward with net zero roadmaps, SME engagement, marrying environmental improvement and economic growth, and ensuring high integrity nature markets. We will want to hear from our entire coalition as we progress into this new era.

Announcing the members of the Nature Markets Dialogue Strategic Steering Group. The Nature Markets Dialogue is Broadway's new initiative to build a consensus around the detailed steps needed to scale up high-integrity nature markets. The Steering Group brings together experts from the business, finance, NGO and policy communities and we are delighted to be working with such a distinguished group of colleagues on such an important issue. The Dialogue will work with stakeholders and experts on three critical issues, each central to the success of these markets: the governance and market oversight arrangements needed; the scaling up of demand in these markets; and creating a cross-party consensus on the way forward to ensure policy continuity. These priorities reflect the conclusions (pp32-33) of Broadway’s report State of UK Nature Markets 2023 . Each priority will be explored in a specific workstream of the Dialogue with the Steering Group maintaining an overview of the project as a whole. Steering Group Members: Peter Young (Chair), Broadway Initiative Helen Avery, Green Finance Institute Richard Benwell, Wildlife & Countryside Link Bal Dhoot, Food & Drink Federation Rosie Hails, ,National Trust Judicaelle Hammond, Country Land & Business Association Rohit Kaushish, National Farmers' Union Emily Norton, Environmental Markets Board Mark Reed, Scotland's Rural College George Sethia, The British Standards Institution Rachel Solomon Williams, Aldersgate Group James Stevens, Home Builders Federation Dan Walker-Nolan, Water UK David Young, Broadway Initiative Liam McAleese (observer), Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Liam Stokes, Director of Nature at Broadway Initiative, will act as Secretary to the Steering Group.

BT marked Earth Day by announcing their partnership with UK Business Climate Hub, the one-stop-shop for UK SME net zero advice managed by Broadway Initiative. BT announced they were joining the UK Business Climate Hub partnership to help small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) to take steps to halve emissions by 2030, and pointed their SMB clients to the Hub's ‘Seven Steps to Sustainability’. The UK Business Climate Hub is the UK portal for SME net zero advice, developed with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the international SME Climate Hub and the UK’s main business organisations, energy networks, high street banks and professional bodies. The coalition is managed by the Broadway Initiative and endorsed by the Net Zero Council . Existing members of the coalition include Barclays, British Business Bank, British Chambers of Commerce, Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Electricity North West, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), HSBC UK, Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), Institute of Directors (IoD), Lloyds Bank, Make UK, NatWest, National Grid, Northern Powergrid, and Sage. 

The Broadway Initiative has launched the Nature Market Dialogue, the space in which stakeholders and influencers can collaborate on the future of UK nature markets. The launch took place on the 25 th March during a roundtable that marked the commencement of the Dialogue’s first workstream, a deep dive into nature market governance. Nature remains in decline. Biodiversity and ecosystem services continue to suffer despite increased public interest and funding, philanthropic efforts and government regulation. Conventional markets have proved incapable of driving investment in the natural capital on which human flourishing and planetary health rely, so nature markets have emerged as a solution. The Nature Market Dialogue is bringing together all the key voices to realise the potential for high integrity nature markets. The Broadway Initiative’s State of UK Nature Markets 2023 built on the work of multiple partners to identify three key challenges: governance, demand drivers and policy continuity. Supported by Esmée Fairburn, the Nature Market Dialogue aims to harmonise and synergise the excellent work being undertaken to crack these barriers and secure agreement on what needs to be done next. The Dialogue will develop a new consensus to respond to the government’s pending consultation on mobilising voluntary green finance and negating greenwash, building the necessary momentum to carry nature markets into the future. The first workstreams are intended to take 18 months to complete, but the Dialogue is here to stay. The Dialogue launched on the 25th March with the initiation of the governance workstream, at a roundtable in partnership with the Environmental Markets Board, Frontier Economics and Arup. Ministers, officials, finance experts and leaders from business and farming gathered to learn both from each other and from the mistakes of the voluntary carbon markets. The roundtable marked the beginning of a process that will surface a consensus among all market participants.  Peter Young, Broadway Chairman and Chair of the Nature Market Dialogue steering committee, said: ‘The Nature Market Dialogue is a vital intervention in the development of high integrity nature markets precisely because it is a dialogue. We are asking everyone with expertise or opinions to head to the project website https://www.naturemarketsdialogue.uk/participation to register their desire to participate. Only by building true, broad consensus and working in a co-ordinated way will we be able to unleash the potential of nature markets to reverse the biodiversity crisis.’ Annabelle Ong, a Director at Frontier Economics, said: ‘Frontier Economics is delighted to host the first Roundtable of “The Nature Market Dialogue”. We urgently need to find ways to accelerate nature recovery and Nature Markets can play an important role in facilitating private investment in nature recovery. I am looking forward to bringing together stakeholders from a wide range of sectors to discuss how we can avoid the pitfalls of voluntary carbon markets and create high integrity nature markets that deliver for the environment and society.’

The Broadway Initiative has released a review of the progress towards establishing high integrity markets for nature across the UK.

The launch of the UK Business Climate Hub has been picked up by a number of publications highlighting the value of this new resource to a variety of sectors.

The Government’s Net Zero Council has announced the creation of a single platform for net zero advice for UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) . The website is an unprecedented collaboration between UK government, all major business organisations acting under the umbrella of the Broadway Initiative, and the SME Climate Hub.

Emily Greene, Policy Analyst with the Broadway Initiative, provides an update on the progress of the recycling and waste sector in meeting net zero.