New year, fresh start?

 It's Monday 4th January and for many of us (though not all!) it's the first day back to work after the Christmas break: the traditional time of course to look back on what we've achieved and look forward to the year ahead. So what will 2016 hold in store for our corner of the sustainability sector?

Well, one of the first jobs of the year will be to untangle and understand the implications of COP Paris (hard to believe it was only a month ago...). The globally agreed 1.5 degree target is ambitious - but necessary - if we're to stop nations simply disappearing into the sea, but it means we're going to have to seriously up our game. In fact, it requires a revolution in our thinking - and our action - on climate change. Folks way cleverer than me have already shared their early thoughts - check out the Green Alliance, Business Green and BBC websites for a selection of views and comment.

Green policy in the UK is rudderless to say the least.  At our seminar in September, there was a call for Government to actually stay out of the sector. With such stop/start slash/burn policy making, the sector doesn't know whether it's coming or going - so perhaps the time has come for us to stand on our own two feet and start filling the vacuum, creating our own markets and stimulating alternative investment.

That said, it will be interesting to see what emerges to replace ECO in 2017. What we do know is that it'll be cheaper than the existing scheme - for which we can read 'even less effective' (and that's on top of the already much diminished energy efficiency ambitions of the Tory Government compared to the Coalition). On the upside (I guess) RHI still exists (although in a rebooted form) and FITS wasn't reduced by as much as originally proposed (a cunning ploy to make us feel grateful for what is still a significant cut?! It reminds me rather of the children's book A Squash and A Squeeze...) Amber Rudd's 'Energy Re-Set' speech, although announcing the end of coal-powered power stations, fell short of showing real leadership in the climate agenda, lending more weight instead to the nuclear lobby and starting a new dash for gas.

The good news story from the end of last year was the £300m committed for 200 heat networks that will generate enough heat for the equivalent of over 400,000 homes and leverage up to £2bn of private capital investment. Heat has become a growing element of our work (we run the annual Heat Conference and are also closely involved in the Vanguards District Heating Network) and we're thrilled to see this boost for the sector.

2016 will of course also see a new Mayor of London (Sadiq Khan seems to be the bookie's favourite at the moment - though dear God don't let Trump triumph in the other election this year...) and the smart meter roll out should really begin to gather pace.  Social housing will hopefully emerge stronger from a rocky 2015 though I fear that beleaguered colleagues in local authorities may still have a way to fall, as we've been hearing at successive LBEG & London HECA Forum meetings.  Max Fordham have made some interesting predictions for the year ahead which include a "Tripadvisor" for buildings and the growth of in-building storage. The Guardian rather gloomily predicts that sustainability will take a back seat - bad timing given not only the recent floods in the UK but also Met Office predictions that 2016 could be the warmest year on record (again).

We'd love to hear what YOU think the next 12 months will bring - drop me a line to rachael.mills@se-2.co.uk or tweet me @se2_rachael. We'll list any response in our next post!