The 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, commonly referred to as COP26, was held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow in November. Delegates from around the world, including heads of states, climate experts and campaigners, convened to agree co-ordinated action to tackle climate change.

GAD’s support for COP26

As host of the COP26 summit, the UK government was central to facilitating this global event. Many government departments were involved in the UK’s preparation and GAD is proud to have lent our support to this work.

One of our actuaries, Sara Ronayne, was seconded to HM Treasury’s Private Finance Hub in the lead up to COP26. The Hub was led by the UK Prime Minister’s Finance Adviser for COP26 – former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney.

A key part of his role was to help create a global financial system where “every professional financial decision takes climate change into account.”

During her secondment Sara used her analytical skills and experience of GAD’s climate work to support a range of new climate finance analysis challenges. Read this blog to find out more about her experience.

GAD’s support for net zero

Of course, while the COP26 summit has been high profile, many other government projects are also playing a key part in ensuring the UK can realise its climate goals. Prior to COP the UK had already set out its landmark strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050. During the summit, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, reaffirmed this commitment and announced the UK’s intention to become the world’s first Net Zero-aligned financial centre.

GAD’s analytical expertise is supporting several projects to help departments realise their own net zero ambitions, such as:

• financial modelling for the Department for Education to help them decarbonise. This includes converting school minibus fleets to electric vehicles and identifying schools most in need of replacing gas boilers with heat pumps
• working closely with the Department for Education’s Risk Protection Arrangement team to build up flood resilience in schools across the country
• chairing cross-department discussions on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and considering the types of financial risk that these contracts may involve. A PPA is a contract that allows an electricity user to buy directly from a renewable energy provider at an agreed cost for an agreed length of time

Understanding climate risk

Alongside our analytical skills, actuaries are well versed in making sense of long-term financial risk and uncertainty. As climate change is a significant source of long-term uncertainty and risk, this is an area in which our skillset can add value.

In GAD we are committed to building our capabilities to support government and the wider public sector in making sense of long-term climate related risks. This includes embedding climate considerations into our ‘traditional’ areas of actuarial work, such as pensions and insurance. We also support other government workstreams where consideration of climate risk is relevant.

Examples of this include:

• embedding climate scenario analysis across a range of workstreams, such as the actuarial valuations GAD undertakes for around 20 public service pension schemes. Read this blog for an example of GAD’s scenario analysis work.
• supporting climate related financial disclosures – we are supporting clients who are required to report their climate related risks and opportunities. Risk management, including the use of climate scenario analysis, is a central aspect of these disclosure requirements.

The £20,000 National Crayfish Monitoring Programme includes environmental DNA (eDNA) surveying that will focus on identifying the presence of native white-clawed crayfish, invasive signal crayfish and crayfish plague.

Surveys took place in November across Northumberland, North and West Yorkshire, including the River Ure near Bainbridge and a Stillwater near Holmfirth.

The signal crayfish, which originates from America, is bigger, more aggressive and out-competes the native white clawed crayfish. They also carry a fungal disease known as crayfish plague, which is fatal to the native species. Some areas of the North East and Yorkshire have some native crayfish populations in their rivers, some of the last strongholds in the country.

Endangered native crayfish

Ian Marshall, Biodiversity Technical Specialist in the North East and white-clawed crayfish National Species Lead for the Environment Agency, is leading on the work. He said:

It’s well known that our native white clawed crayfish is in perilous danger and it’s imperative we take steps to safeguard its future.

The more we know about the presence and movement of both native and non-native crayfish the more we can do to help. This pilot project will result in a new sampling protocol being developed for use right across the country, which will support conservation efforts.

By using the latest techniques, we will be able to better focus our efforts, enabling us to make a greater impact on conserving this valuable species.

New method of surveying

The new method was successfully implemented by the Marine Institute Ireland (MII) and involves pumping a large amount of river water through a glass fibre filter using a specialist pump. This is then sent to MII and the Environment Agency’s National Laboratory Service for analysis.

It’s hoped the new survey methods will better support white-clawed crayfish conservation efforts. The £20,000 project is funded jointly by the Environment Agency and Defra.

Ian is also exploring how to apply the new method to other protected species, such as freshwater pearl mussels, as well as to invasive species. He added:

The opportunity to also work with freshwater pearl mussels to identify potential relic populations or introduction sites is currently being investigated.

River users can play a vital role in conserving the future of white clawed crayfish. The Environment Agency urges people to ‘Check – Clean – Dry’ their footwear and equipment after spending time in and around watercourses.

Anything that has contact with the water and riverbank needs to be cleaned thoroughly and dried until it has been dry for 48 hours. If this is not possible, cleaning and the use of an environmentally friendly aquatic disinfectant is recommended. This will make sure all aquatic diseases and invasive species are killed. More information can be found on the Invasive non-native species website.