Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer appointed UK Decarbonisation Champion

That this House congratulates Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, Associate Principal (Global Sustainability) at Heriot-Watt University, on her appointment as the UK’s Decarbonisation Champion by UK Research and Innovation; notes that Mercedes Maroto-Valer will work with industry and leading experts to develop a proposal to decarbonise the UK economy by 2050; understands that she will also work in partnership with academia, industry, policymakers and other stakeholders to develop a new, state-of-the-art Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (the Centre) based at Edinburgh’s Heriot Watt-University; further notes that the Centre will allow researchers and industry to work together to develop new research and ideas that address complex social and environmental challenges essential to tackling climate change; welcomes the announcement of £170 million in funding through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to help support the project until 2024; highlights the Centre’s ambition to transform the UK’s largest industrial areas reliant on carbon fuel into world-leading low-carbon manufacturing hubs whilst safeguarding jobs and communities and wishes Mercedes Maroto-Valer and her team every success in their endeavours.