Environmental Affairs is Policy Exchange’s quarterly journal, which explores the implications of the growing role of environmental policy. In this edition, Unleashing Climate Capital, our contributors consider policies promoting green investments, including the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investment agenda.

Energy policy is back on the front pages, with stories about rising energy bills, energy suppliers going bust, and concerns over security of supply, with the UK’s electricity grid appearing to creak even before demand ramps up during the winter.

It’s a formidable in-tray for new Energy Minister Greg Hands, who will benefit from working alongside BEIS Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, a former Energy Minister himself.

Two of the Government’s top priorities for reforming the planning system are: to deliver more and more- beautiful homes, and reducing carbon emissions so that Britain is emitting no more carbon than it is absorbing (‘Net Zero’). Though each of the priorities affects the other substantially, they are often considered in isolation. Due to a lack of published and timely work analysing this interaction, Policy Exchange convened a variety of experts in July 2021 for a roundtable discussion on the interactions between climate, environment and planning.

The sheer number of new wind farms now planned in the UK means that there is increasing local concern over the number of new ‘grid connections’ required to connect offshore wind farms to the onshore electricity network. Without more coordination between projects, the impact of this new infrastructure on local communities and the environment risks similar local backlash to onshore wind farms and fracking.

This report launches Policy Exchange’s new programme, Beyond COP26, in the run up to the COP26 climate conference that the UK will host in Glasgow later this year. The programme is co-chaired by two former Energy Secretaries, Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP and Rt Hon Amber Rudd.

Voices in the environment sector have long fired criticisms at Net Zero, the Government’s target for eradicating emissions by the middle of this century. Last year, Greta Thunberg argued that the world should ‘forget’ Net Zero, and an article recently posted by The Conversation argued it is a “dangerous trap”. However, the opposite is true; Net Zero is a practical and a political victory for the decarbonisation agenda, not a dangerous trap worth forgetting.