12 June 2023

“Your participation and support is essential
to ensure the success of the project”

Rt Hon Graham Stuart MP, Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Dear colleagues,

Further to the ‘Dear CEO’ letter from the Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, we are writing to finalise the next steps for Project Perseus. 

The Minister’s letter clearly spells out how firms that support this initiative will showcase UK leadership on delivering net zero. The UK Government is supporting the programme through its inclusion in the Green Finance Strategy, and as a key component of the newly established Net Zero Council. It is also connected with the Smart Data Council and the Transition Plan Taskforce. British Business Bank are co-chairing. 

With COP28 just around the corner, where Perseus will be showcased, there are three key next steps for launch, which will include significant brand representation opportunities:

  1. Confirm the institutions involved.  It is important that all firms that are going to be involved as founders and supporters confirm their intention to do so as a matter of priority. 
  2. Strategy Roundtable with Lord Callanan, Minister for Green Finance on 21 June 10.30am, for CEOs/Heads of Sustainability (or suitable alternate) for confirmed participating institutions.   
  3. London Climate Action Week event with Lord Callanan and the British Business Bank on the evening of 27 June in Parliament.  This will include a full press release and media coverage. 

The coming six months are critical and represent the initial heavy lift of Perseus.  

For this reason, it is important that we have support and firm commitments at the beginning of the project, rather than later in the year.  

A financial contribution is required to join this ambitious programme. Funds will support the two non-profit companies (B4NZ and Icebreaker One) that are running it. An open budget will be published in the near future with details on the use of funds.

We are aware that time is very stretched for everyone. The programme is designed to minimise the time contribution required from partners and why funding is necessary.

As of today:  

  • Steering Group and Advisory Groups are in place 
  • Project scope has been defined and endorsed by an industry Advisory Group 
  • We have confirmed commercial actors including banks, accounting solutions
    and energy companies. To maximise impact we must go far together.

To recap, Perseus is a major national initiative to create assurable, automated Scope 1 and 2 data flows at SME level, to unlock consistent and comparable reporting, and deliver more accurate Scope 3 data across the economy.  We are all aware that there will be much more to do—this is the beginning of a journey that will integrate and build on the groundbreaking work from previous years with Open Banking and Open Energy. 

Target outcomes for 2023 are: 

1. Do one thing well: build a demonstrator for COP28

Enable assurable data to flow automatically from the real economy (energy companies) to the financial economy (banks) with the permission of the customer (SME) while improving the quality and impact of outcomes for stakeholders

2. Go far together: build the process with Advisory Groups (AGs)

  • AG1 Enable prioritisation of actions that link disclosure to measurable impact
  • AG2, AG3 Address the technical and legal implementation challenges
  • AG4 Agree on cohesive communications and engagement
  • AG5 Identify policy interventions

We will hold a final information session that is available to all to answer any queries and to set out steps for involvement on Friday 16th June at 9am and again at 4pm.

We will need to move quickly in order to hit our COP28 target. 

As you have had the proposal for some time, we would be grateful if you can confirm your commitment to joining the programme before COB Tuesday 20th June. This will ensure all participating organisations are represented at the Ministerial roundtable which is on the 21st June, and so we have ample time to organise our press and comms strategy for the London Climate Action Week event on the 27th June. 

Full details are online (including FAQ and PDF downloads) at https://ib1.org/perseus. You can join online at https://ib1.org/join-perseus. 

To discuss any of the above, please contact perseus@icebreakerone.org. 

For and on behalf of the Steering Group