“We need to prioritise the role of the engineering profession … recognising that you hold the answers, that you hold the solutions, and that you are the future when it comes to delivering on net zero for us all.”

The address emphasised the MPs personal commitment to the zero carbon target: identifying it as an urgent challenge, but also as an opportunity for the UK to capitalise on its world-leading position on climate change.

“That was the core message of the Mission Zero Review: that net zero is not just a policy that is there to tackle climate change and the environment, vital though that is, net zero is now the principal economic opportunity for the 21st Century.”

Acknowledging both the importance and the opportunities of zero carbon targets, the address highlighted the key role of the engineering professions: “we rely on yourselves to be able to come up with creative solutions to the problems we face, just as we’ve always relied on engineers in centuries past; to deliver on transport stations, to deliver on buildings and cities that we now live in. We now rely on yourselves to come forward and find the solutions to the net zero problems we don’t have answers for as well as scaling up the challenges we know we can meet today.”

The address was delivered to an audience of six hundred who had gathered for the event which recognizes excellence in the design and operation of energy efficient, low carbon buildings. 

The overall CIBSE Building Performance Champion award was won by a retrofit project designed to demonstrate how older homes could be improved to the point where they become net energy generators rather than consumers.