Our 2025 work programme for the Climate, Environment and Sustainability Programme - get involved!

10 Jan 2025 03:11 PM

As 2024 turns in to 2025 we are really excited to share the work programme for our sustainability programme. The below sets out our focus areas, working groups and programme outline as well as events/webinars and we'd love to get you involved. There is a mixture of policy, regulatory, soft-law and voluntary standards in the mix alongside support in helping the tech sector operationalise and act on sustainability.

Of course this is non-exhaustive as we also have to react to new developments, whether that is a new policy area emerging, unexpectedly early/late policy or regulatory initiative, or some sudden progress with voluntary initiatives or new standards. There are also a bunch of stuff that constitutes 'business as usual' we haven't listed (topics such as greenwashing, Modern Slavery Act reporting, chemicals, batteries, WEEE etc) as there are ongoing in our working groups. 

We hope you find the workplan exciting and we'd love to get more firms involved so please do get in touch if you want to write for the Climate Action Hub, share your expertise with us on a webinar or participate at events. If you have any questions do get in touch with us using the details below. Members can also contact us 1-1 if they have any questions or need any help with anything tech and sustainability related.

Campaigns

• Circular innovations - We would like to showcase how the tech sector is working to deliver a true circular economy for the UK, with a half day conference, case studies, blogs and discussions with local and central governments. This will launch in Q1.
• Tech for Climate Resilience - This is our ongoing campaign to demonstrarw how digital tech can make the UK more secure and resilient to climate risk. This is a growing area of importance as 2025 has started with flooding across the UK, fires in America and confirmation that this is locked in as we officially exceeded1.5 degree warming in 2024. A dedicated week in February is scheduled for 3-7 February. 
• Sustainable public ICT procurement -  We believe the British government needs to rethink how it looks at sustainability when it procures ICT and tech services, and this year will see a new Procurement Act, a revitalised GDSA and we're keen to identify how sustainability can be more embedded in to decision making. 
• In terms of stand out events, we will again partner with London Climate Action Week and use COP 30 to elevate these campaign messages.

Public policy priorities

• Unless you have been living under a rock, AI and climate is going to be a signifigant, growing issue for  the sector. techUK aims to represent member views in this complex debate and position the UK as a leading place to deploy green AI. 
• With so many new MPs entering parliament, there is a real sense from members that we need to showcase how digital tech can deliver sustainable growth' and real, positive impacts acrtoss of the UK. We will be proactively reaching out to interested new MPs and will look at a dedicated parlaimentary event. 
• Addressing the barriers that are inhibiting progress towards net zero. 
• Scaling British Climate Tech. The UK is the leading place in Europe to start and scale 'climate tech', but growing these businesses is hard. We will be working with our Climate Tech Policy Coalition partners and the new APPG to see how to scale ‘climate tech’ in the UK.

Expected priority policy/regulatory announcements/consultations (we will host calls/webinars as they emerge)

• We expect alot of announcements in Q1 (and a consultation) on new sustainability reporting rules, and we've already seen one on a UK green taxonomy. The Dept for Business and Trade will be leading on this and techUK will be actively monitoring developments here.
• Circular Economy Strategy. The new government has effectively paused some of our key areas for reform (WEEE and batteries), however there will be a new Circular Economy Strategy that we think tech has a massive role in delivering.
• E-waste and EPR laws. Carried over from the Conservative government we expect this to be key.
• EU omnibus on sustainability reporting. The EU announced it aims to bring in a single instrument to combine CSRD, CS3D and the EU green taxonomy with the aim of reducing compliance burdens. techUK will work with Digital Europe to make sure the sector is heard, and also work with the UK government on what this means for UK thinking and compliance for UK based organisations with operations or customers in the EU.

Possible policy issues (things that we think may emerge)

• There is a possibility of another review of how the UK can get to net zero, building on the work of the previous government. This will follow on from Clean Power 2030 and techUK will adovocate for a digital led approach.
• More work on TNFD. There has been rapid progress on the tasnforce for nature related disclosures, techUK will be monitoring developments and inputting directly as Defra (and others) consider how best to bring nature reporting in to law.
• Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. With the EU passing the CS3D (and now looking at wrapping it in to an Omnibus alongside other rules), there are questions on how the UK will approach this. techUK feels the UK needs to legislate for mandatory due diligence and avoid becoming a dumping ground, or falling behind on modern slavey and human rights. There is likely to be a parliamentary campaign on this issue too as many MPs have strong feelings on forced labour in supply chains.
• There is a strong chance of a broad parliamentary inquiry into the issue of AI and the impacts of this technology on climate change. 

Reports/written papers

• Digital Sustainability 2030. techUK is writing a paper on how government can help (or at least not hinder) the tech sector become more sustainable, and how the UK can lead the way on this. The paper will be 'one stop shop' for our policy recommendations across all our areas. 
• Green Coding Toolkit. techUK is writing a new toolkit for firms who want to understand 'green software development', introduce themselves to the concept of 'green-ops' and we hope to launch it in spring.
• The Tech Net Zero Plan. This is ongoing and will be a framework for techUK members to set their own net zero plans, including barriers to reaching net zero and ways to overcome them.
• techUK will be rewriting our single paper briefings on all areas we cover: climate change and net zero; mandaotry due diligence and supply chain transparency; the role of tech in deliveirng a circular economy; eco-design and product regulations; ESG disclosures and corporate reporting; tech and nature risks.

Working groups – please email Lucas.Banach@techUKorg if you wish to sign up to any!

• Climate Council – The directly elected board of members that sets our direction, policy and priorities for climate change and how the tech sector approaches net zero. This is for re-election in November 2025 (Chair/Vice Chairs are ERM, QinetiQ, GoCodeGreen)
• Digital Device Environment Group – Our community of device manufacturers who are interested in the regulatory issues impacting them, specifically WEEE, packaging, batteries, chemicals, circularity in general and ecodesign (Chair/Vice is Samsung and Dell).
• Responsible Business Conduct Group – Our de-facto ‘ESG’ group looking at corporate disclosures, supply chain transparency, human rights and ethical business generally (Chair/Vice Chair is Accenture and Slaughter and May)
• Tech Nature and Biodiversity Group – The group of members interested in nature risks, biodiversity net gain and using digital tech to help meet nature aims (no Chair).

Partnerships and cross-techUK work

• We will work with numerous other programmes to make sure our positioning and public discourse on the AI and climate debate is robust, accurate and reflective of the tech sector.
• Tech for local net zero plans. techUK has a very well established Local Public Service programmr and so we combine efforts to look at how techUK member tech can  be used in council areas across the UK to help deliver local net zero plans. This is critical with more devolution, the fact so many local authorities declared 'climate emergencies' and the need to improve resilience to extreme weather. 
• Sustainable public sector tech procurement. As the Procurement Act comes in to force and new processes emerge, we want to work with our public sector programmes so we can make the case for the government to adopt technology in the most sustainable way possible.
• Energy and grid planning. The changing energy grid, efforts to achieve 100% clean power by 2030 and the need to reform planning and infrastrucutre delivery requires us to work closely with our data centre and smart infrastructure programme so government understands how to approach these critical in a holisitc fashion.
• Industrial Strategy, Infrastructure Strategy and Spending Review. With three big cross-sector economic documents to come out in Q2 this year, we will feed in to our wider policy team on what these mean for net zero and wider sustainability. There will be a (classic mix) of challenges and opportunities. 
• External organisations techUK will be partnering with: We need to work with a range of organisations as sustainability impacts all sectors, and our priority relationships are with the Joint Trade Association/Material Focus on e-waste; Broadway Initiative on the new Net Zero Council; Digital Europe for all new EU stuff; Climate Tech Policy Coalition; GDSA on procurement; and the Labour Climate and Environment Forum. techUK will continue to also partner with London Climate Action Week, Climate Action and others on key events such as COP 30.

Events and meetings

• Quarterly meetings our working groups, and bi-monthly meetings of the Climate Council.
• Monthly Sustainability Update Calls – to share opportunities and updates more holistically.
• Our event list is below:
  • April - Fireside talk and networking: Launch of Green Coding / GreenOps Toolkit
  • April - Parliamentary event: Digital tools for net zero – showcase + some speakers
  • May - Conference: Circular Innovations – ½ day conference on innovations in circular economy
  • June – AI and human rights event alongside our digital ethics programme.
  • June - Roundtable for London Climate Action Week: Sustainable Procurement Summit
  • June - Roundtable for London Climate Action Week: Something with GB Energy and the Industrial Strategy – particularly how can GB Energy be a catalyst for climate tech
  • July – Biodiversity Showcase
  • July - Roundtable: Digital solutions for local authority net zero plans
  • Oct - Conference: Tech and Net Zero
  • Dec - Showcase: Tech Led Decarbonisation
  • Dec - Networking: Winter climate tech reception

• Our proposed webinar plan is below and these are our monthly educational webinars to help firms operationalise sustainability, understand new trends and learn about new rules. Additional ones will be organised to support campaigns and react to political announcements, new regulations and major external events.
  • Feb - Webinar: Tech for Climate Resilience (part of our wider campaign)
  • Feb - Webinar: Introduction to Voluntary Carbon Markets
  • Mar - Webinar: How can we get the UK to be the best place to deploy green AI 
  • April - Webinar: Barriers to scaling climate tech (alongside the Climate Tech Policy Coalition)
  • May - Webinar: Contrasting UK and EU sustainability regulations; where is the divergence? 
  • June - Webinar: Tech for victim support on modern slavery
  • Sep - Webinar: The latest on nature disclosures 
  • Oct - Webinar: AI for ESG disclosures 
  • Dec - Webinar: Trends in Responsible Business Conduct