Bristol City Council has been successful in securing a share of Innovate UK’s £2 million fund to develop innovative ways to overcome barriers to net zero. The programme focusses on addressing barriers such as financing, governance, regulation, and engagement.

Bristol will use the £75,000 grant to fund an ambitious feasibility study to examine what support communities and businesses require to achieve their climate goals. It will also look at how to secure additional investment in new ways and to help businesses grow and create jobs which create prosperity, benefit the whole community, and enable people and places to thrive. The study will run from April to June in partnership with Bristol Green Capital Partnership and Bristol and Bath Regional Capital and will create a plan to achieve these goals. Bristol, along with other applicants, will then be invited to a potential second phase which will fund up to 6 places, £5 million each to demonstrate some of the outputs from Phase 1.

Councillor Kye Dudd, Cabinet Member for Environment, Ecology, Energy, and Waste, said: “Bristol is pioneering, from City Leap to England’s largest water source heat pump and the country’s largest on-shore wind turbine. I am delighted Bristol has been awarded £75,000 from the Innovate UK Net Zero Living Programme”

“Bristol’s One City Climate Strategy identifies many opportunities that cutting greenhouse gas emissions offers in creating high-quality jobs and warmer homes. Investment in new low carbon technologies is needed to replace the fossil fuel technology which we use for much of our heat, power and mobility. Some of these investments will pay for themselves and generate a return for investors. We want to find a way to bring more investment into climate change projects and do this more efficiently and more easily.

“We have identified barriers and are taking action to address some of these including through Bristol City Leap, a partnership with the private sector, which will invest over £1 billion to accelerate our progress in reducing carbon emissions and improving the energy efficiency of council owned homes. City Leap, a UK-first, will create 1,000 new jobs and cut 140,000 tonnes of emissions over the next five years. We look forward to the chance to compete for further multi-million pound funding in the second phase of the Innovate UK competition to continue this work”

In the meantime, check out Bristol Green Capital Partnership’s Climate Action Programme which supports businesses to reduce carbon emissions, as part of Bristol’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis.