London, UK
ADBA National Conference
A General Election is looming and, frighteningly, the calls for Not Zero are growing louder, even as the world reels from the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change. While Net Zero is legislated for, legislation can be reversed. The argument goes that “we can’t afford net zero because of the cost-of-living crisis, and the cost-of-living crisis arises out of disruption to supply chains for gas, grain and fertiliser caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.
If climate change is left unabated, the impacts on the global supply chains will be far, far greater in magnitude. Business understands this, raising the alarm about the economic cost of inaction against climate change. “We need to put the economy on a new footing”, they say, “one that is resource-led, to secure climate, energy and food security”. In a geopolitically unstable world, this is the only game in town. The US and EU have recently turbo-charged their responses to the threat of climate change. The war in Ukraine might have been the trigger but underlying this shift is a recognition that nations must in future develop the technologies needed to maximise the resources at their disposal. It makes no sense to continue like this.
AD is central to both programmes, reflecting the technology’s unrivalled role in resource recovery from the everyday waste created across the food chain from farm to fork and into the bin – sewage, manures, crop residues, and food processing waste.