Welcome to the first edition of Green Transition Technology (GTT). Over the coming months and years, GTT hopes to bring you insight, information and debate related to the UK’s move to Net Zero. This first issue contains a number of baseline articles in the fields of the Circular Economy, Agritech and Clean Energy, all areas of crucial importance to the net zero goal.

We launch at a time when there appears to be increasing political pushback against some of the climate-related policies of governments around the world. In this country, the Government has postponed the ban on the sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and vans from 2030 to 2035.  

Similarly, at the behest of Germany, e-fuels – those that combine hydrogen and carbon dioxide – received an exemption from the EU’s Green Deal, which also seeks to ban the sale of ICE vehicles from 2035. Additionally, in the Netherlands and New Zealand there have been changes in their governments due – in no small part – to pressure from farmers reacting to, as they see it, climate policies which are negatively affecting their businesses.

And this theme is likely to continue as opportunistic political parties will see the softening or derogation of climate-related policies and regulations as a way of winning support and even power. However, be this as it may, Net Zero supersedes the political landscape and is a scientific argument that has been won.

And even if climate sceptics remain, the move away from fossil fuel dependency towards home-grown clean energy sources is a political and industrial freedom: Business will be far more insulated from the effects of geo-political events leading to a far more stable economy which benefits us all.  

Moreover, the UK is good at climate change mitigation. At the end of the last year, the UK became the first country in the G20 to half its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). While this is undoubtedly a positive step, the country still emitted over 300m tonnes of GHGs into the atmosphere last year, a figure which must be zero by law within the next 26 years. So, there is plenty of work to be done.  

And though largely unreported in the mainstream media, there is an enormous amount of work being done – whether through regulation or technical innovation – to bring down emissions, not just in this country, but throughout the world.

In the UK, the Government’s ‘Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener’ provides a roadmap for the decarbonisation of all sectors of the UK’s economy by 2050.  And as you read through the pages of this first issue, you will see that the policies and proposals contained within the strategy paper are already beginning to bear fruit.  

So, who should be reading Green Transition Technology (GTT). GTT is a business-to-business magazine (B2B) aimed at bringing together those companies looking to reduce their GHGs and create more environmentally-sustainable business models with those companies that are creating innovative ways in which to do so – across all sectors of the economy. It’s an ambitious target but since sustainability is as relevant to an airline as it is to the fashion industry, it seemed improvident to limit our coverage to a specific sector.

However, we want to go further than that: GTT wants to harness the ‘organic’ intelligence of its readership to help forge the regulatory frameworks and technical solutions upon which Net Zero can advance. How? By providing a Forum in which readers from across different industries can pose questions, receive answers, make contacts and engage in debate. In short, to provide a place where ideas can cross-fertilise to provide insights, pathways and solutions to accelerate and achieve the goal of Net Zero.  

On an administrative note, we hope to provide new features on a bi-monthly basis – that is more features every two months – monthly analysis, and news on a rolling as-and-when basis. Lastly, thank you for reading and with your help we hope to make GTT a go-to resource for all those interested in Net Zero and the pathway to it.