Colin Nolden, Sean Fox, Emilia Melville, Katherine Sugar, Tedd Moya Mose, Caroline Bird, Jack Nicholls
{"title":"Procuring local net zero investment: A UK case study.","authors":"Colin Nolden, Sean Fox, Emilia Melville, Katherine Sugar, Tedd Moya Mose, Caroline Bird, Jack Nicholls","doi":"10.1007/s12053-025-10346-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Following over a decade and a half of austerity measures, and with costs of delivering statutory duties soaring, UK local authorities' resources and capabilities to deliver net zero are diminishing. Decarbonisation funding provided by central government, meanwhile, is awarded competitively. To secure long-term, place-based net zero investments under these unfavourable circumstances, UK local authorities are increasingly turning to public procurement. A prominent example is Bristol City Leap, a Joint Venture Company procured by Bristol City Council between 2018 and 2022 to deliver around £1bn of investment in energy infrastructure and service delivery over 20 years through a concession agreement. Drawing on workshops and interviews with key stakeholders and experts, this paper examines the risks and opportunities of procurement and early-stage delivery of this public-private-partnership model. Using insights from transaction cost economics, it finds that this agreement has significantly increased net zero investment in return for increased risk and transaction costs. To ensure successful, just, and equitable delivery of promised place-based net zero investments, significant procurement capabilities, careful due diligence procedures, continuing institutional oversight, and independent measurement and verification are required.</p>","PeriodicalId":537,"journal":{"name":"Energy Efficiency","volume":"18 6","pages":"54"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12213993/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Energy Efficiency","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-025-10346-w","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/7/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENERGY & FUELS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Following over a decade and a half of austerity measures, and with costs of delivering statutory duties soaring, UK local authorities' resources and capabilities to deliver net zero are diminishing. Decarbonisation funding provided by central government, meanwhile, is awarded competitively. To secure long-term, place-based net zero investments under these unfavourable circumstances, UK local authorities are increasingly turning to public procurement. A prominent example is Bristol City Leap, a Joint Venture Company procured by Bristol City Council between 2018 and 2022 to deliver around £1bn of investment in energy infrastructure and service delivery over 20 years through a concession agreement. Drawing on workshops and interviews with key stakeholders and experts, this paper examines the risks and opportunities of procurement and early-stage delivery of this public-private-partnership model. Using insights from transaction cost economics, it finds that this agreement has significantly increased net zero investment in return for increased risk and transaction costs. To ensure successful, just, and equitable delivery of promised place-based net zero investments, significant procurement capabilities, careful due diligence procedures, continuing institutional oversight, and independent measurement and verification are required.
期刊介绍:
The journal Energy Efficiency covers wide-ranging aspects of energy efficiency in the residential, tertiary, industrial and transport sectors. Coverage includes a number of different topics and disciplines including energy efficiency policies at local, regional, national and international levels; long term impact of energy efficiency; technologies to improve energy efficiency; consumer behavior and the dynamics of consumption; socio-economic impacts of energy efficiency measures; energy efficiency as a virtual utility; transportation issues; building issues; energy management systems and energy services; energy planning and risk assessment; energy efficiency in developing countries and economies in transition; non-energy benefits of energy efficiency and opportunities for policy integration; energy education and training, and emerging technologies. See Aims and Scope for more details.