ACE responds to the National Infrastructure Commission’s progress review and the CLC’s quarterly performance update for CO₂nstructZero:

Stephen Marcos Jones, CEO of ACE said: “The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) review shows that more needs to be done if we are to meet society’s ambitious Net Zero target. It is rightly sounding a warning to Government and others that more tangible detail and progress is needed if we are to deliver a carbon neutral economy by 2050. We hope that next week’s Spring Statement will deliver on some of the highlighted projects and programmes – such as a comprehensive energy efficiency push to insulate homes, devolved funding to more councils for local transport schemes, and the need to accelerate the roll out of electric vehicle charging points – not just for the paradigm shifts they deliver, but also for the jobs their roll-out will create.”

“ACE supports the Commission’s view that there have been some positive moves to date, notably the creation of the UK Infrastructure Bank and an increase in renewable energy capacity, and it is encouraging to see the industry aligned to society’s ambitions in this space. Figures from the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) CO₂nstructZero programme, also released today, demonstrate the positive progress that has been made to date by the sector, but also the scale of the challenge that remains. It will only be by industry and Government working together in lock step that we will meet our commitments on Net Zero.

“With this in mind, we are delighted to be working closely with the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) over the coming months to encourage the construction and infrastructure pipeline to be as green as it can be, as well as inputting into the CLC’s activity in collating metrics from across industry to better measure our progress.”