By Professor Vicky Pope, Chair of Devon Wildlife Trust and Board Member, South West Business Council.
Across the South West, few phrases are heard more often than Green Growth. It captures an ambition most of us share: to decarbonise our economy, to grow high‑value industries, and to position the region as a leader in clean energy, advanced engineering and innovation.
But if that ambition is to succeed, we need to be honest about a growing tension. Net zero delivery and environmental protection are still too often treated as parallel – and sometimes competing – agendas.
“Net zero trumps the environment… energy people and environment people have different mindsets.”
– UK Energy Research Centre, Infrastructure Transformation for Net Zero: Environmental Risks
This conclusion, drawn from interviews with senior practitioners across energy, infrastructure and government, will ring true for many businesses. Crucially, it is no longer a concern voiced only by environmental organisations. Engineering and infrastructure leaders – including the Institution of Civil Engineers – are increasingly clear that the challenge is not choosing between nature and infrastructure, but overcoming the barriers that stop us designing them together.
Green growth depends on nature – economically as well as environmentally
Infrastructure does not land in a vacuum. Grid upgrades, offshore wind, hydrogen hubs, ports, composites manufacturing and transport corridors all depend on land, water, coastal environments and, critically, community consent.
When environmental considerations are addressed late in the process, projects slow down, costs rise and opposition hardens. From a business perspective, that means greater delivery risk and reduced investor confidence.
Recent analysis from The Wildlife Trusts reinforces this point from an economic angle. Their work challenges the persistent myth that nature protections hold back growth, pointing instead to strong evidence – including the Dasgupta Review and independent economic analysis – that nature underpins economic value, productivity and resilience. Research commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts has shown that a well‑functioning Biodiversity Net Gain market alone could support hundreds of millions of pounds in economic activity and thousands of jobs each year.
“Nature is not a blocker to development; it is a foundation for long‑term certainty and confidence”
– Becky Pullinger – The Wildlife Trusts
This message increasingly aligns with infrastructure thinking. The New Civil Engineer has argued that enhancing nature alongside carbon reduction is essential for resilient, financeable infrastructure. This is not about adding complexity – it is about reducing long‑term risk.
The south west is well placed – if we join the dots
The South West is already demonstrating how closely clean growth and environmental outcomes are linked.
The South West Business Council’s priorities reflect this clearly. Floating Offshore Wind in the Celtic Sea offers major supply‑chain and skills opportunities, but only if cumulative marine impacts and coastal communities are properly considered from the start. Hydrogen, ports and maritime decarbonisation depend on water availability, land use and infrastructure choices that stand up environmentally as well as technically.
The Dorset Clean Energy Super Cluster, advanced composites and nuclear‑adjacent opportunities all rely on long‑term planning certainty and social licence. Support for the North Devon Biosphere reflects an understanding that business and the environment must work in lockstep if growth is to be sustained.
These are not “nice‑to‑have” environmental add‑ons. They are core enablers of delivery, investment confidence and regional competitiveness.
Avoiding false trade-offs
The UKERC research highlights a real risk for all regions accelerating net zero infrastructure: if planning and consenting reforms prioritise speed without integration, environmental risk increases and public trust erodes.
Poorly sited or uncoordinated infrastructure creates cumulative impacts, leading ultimately to more delay rather than less. For business, this means uncertainty. Investors do not benefit from projects that stall due to environmental conflict that could have been anticipated earlier. Nor do communities support growth that feels imposed rather than designed with local benefit in mind.
What good looks like for boards and business leaders
The most successful green growth strategies share common features:
- They treat nature as infrastructure, not an obstacle
- They integrate environmental expertise alongside engineering and commercial skills early in project design
- They use strategic spatial planning to avoid piecemeal development
- They build local capability, so energy, environment and planning teams speak the same language
- They deliver visible community and environmental benefits alongside economic ones
This is not about slowing the energy transition. It is about making it deliverable, investable and durable.
A shared leadership challenge
As a Board member of the South West Business Council and Chair of Devon Wildlife Trust, I see daily how much common ground exists between business leaders, engineers and environmental practitioners in this region.
The challenge now is leadership – from boards, investors and policymakers – to insist that green growth is genuinely joined up. If we get this right, the South West can demonstrate that clean growth and environmental recovery are not competing ambitions, but mutually reinforcing ones.
That is not just good for nature. It is good for business.
Professor Vicky Pope, Chair of Board of Trustees, Devon Wildlife Trust, In2scienceUK and MEI
Vicky Pope had a long and varied career in the Met Office. She worked for many years on climate change. She led the development of some of the best climate models in the world and later ran the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme, acting as the interface between scientists and government and other key stakeholders including the media. More recently she was an independent member of the audit and risk assurance committee for Climate Change and Rural Affairs for Welsh government.
Prof Vicky Pope has a particular interest in the environment and improving access to science and maths education. She is Chair of the Devon Wildlife Trust, In2scienceUK (a social mobility charity promoting STEM careers) and MEI (A charity that improves Maths Education for all). She was the founding editor of ‘Climate Resilience and Sustainability’ for the Royal Meteorological Society. She is a Trustee of BRE Trust (Building Research Establishment). She is also the National Labs lead for the Association of Research Innovation and Technology Organisations (AIRTO).
