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Record-high temperatures across the globe this summer, and the droughts and dangerous wildfires that come along with such extremes, are an alarming reminder of the already severe effects of climate change on our planet.

We are not on track to limit global warming to 1.5^oC and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has now thrown down the gauntlet, suggesting a 2050 target just isn’t good enough if we want to prevent significant impact. It now says global emissions must peak by 2025 and steeply reduce thereafter – which gives us just three years to turn things around.

Action to reduce emissions has steadily increased over the past decade, and the scale and breadth of commitments from organisations and governments worldwide has gone up a gear. Big corporations are going toe-to-toe to demonstrate who can be seen as the most ambitious and hit their net zero targets quickest.

But setting ever more ambitious targets is pointless unless we also accelerate our trajectory of delivery. We need to switch focus from applauding aspirations to celebrating achievements, which means swapping out historic competition for a more collaborative effort.

Climate emergency

There’s still work to be done in convincing some of the electorate, and people in power, of the urgency – and sometimes the validity – of the climate emergency.

This summer, in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave, we’ve seen a BBC weatherman trolled for his comments linking extreme temperatures to climate change, while some politicians play down the importance of net zero and complain about the financial burden, and the business sectors lobby for fewer mandatory changes. 

However, recent global events have provoked new motivation to reach net zero in the UK, exposing an unsustainable and precarious reliance on imported energy. With the threat of fossil fuels not only causing environmental disaster, but being entirely cut off, decarbonisation is being re-prioritised vis-a-vis energy security, and now everyone is taking notice.

Although we have an abundance of talent across government, industry and academia working together to address the many challenges we face, resourcing issues from all sides have the potential to create delays. Given the urgency with which we must now act, it’s clear we must come together, harnessing our collective power to reach a shared goal.

The solution

The global climate crisis is just that – it’s global. It affects everyone on the planet. We’re facing this challenge together and we must find the solution together. But all too often, decisions are still made on the basis of an inward-focused agenda.

A bill recently passed in the US will mean crews on specialised offshore international construction vessels will need to match the flag of the vessel or be US mariners. Designed to create more American jobs, it could instead drastically reduce the workforce and impede productivity. It has been hugely criticised as a misjudged effort to protect national interests while creating a significant setback for international progress.

This is a prime example of the challenges faced by collaboration, with nations keen to ring-fence staff, knowledge and intellectual property – often mirrored at an organisational level. While working together is essential for the kind of change we need, a long history of self-preservation and competition is not going anywhere fast.

Call for collaboration

For collaboration to work, protections must be in place to enable companies to maintain healthy competition and follow World Trade Organisation rules, as well as preserve commercially important information, while working in partnership, supporting communities, training and jobs.

In practice, mitigating these risks to enable cooperative collaboration would require all parties to agree a shared vision, guiding principles and robust governance issues at the outset, and to be genuinely invested in mutual success. It almost certainly needs government support in the form of policy and legislation, and could even require new relational contracting methods, to protect companies and individuals, while nurturing healthy and sustainable relationships.

At Atkins, we know collaboration goes hand-in-hand with finding realistic solutions to global challenges, and we’re excited about collaborating with other consultancies to bring the best talent to the table. We’re also keen to work more closely with government and regulators to address the skills shortage and create a low-risk, efficient way of working that gets universally beneficial results, quicker.

On an industry level, we need a sea-change in perspective – those who would previously have been seen as competitors need to be reframed as allies. Teams need to be multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational. We need to work through our differences to compound our strength and empower the sector, globally, to make the difference the world needs right now.