Calls for UK to lead on AI solutions to net zero
Published 5 October 2020
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Energy UK has urged chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak to make the UK the home of a new global centre for applying artificial intelligence to tackling climate change issues.
In its submission to the Treasury’s spending review, seen by Utility Week, the industry body recommends the establishment in the UK of an International Centre for AI, Energy and Climate Change (ICAIEC).
The centre would aim to facilitate cross-sector collaboration around developing technological solutions for energy and climate change issues.
Besides enabling reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the submission says the new centre could accelerate the application of AI to key sectors, solidifying the UK’s position as a leader in the field and attracting top international talent to Britain.
Delivery of the new centre could cost an estimated £100 million, which Energy UK says could be drawn from the government’s increased spending commitments to public research and development expenditure set out in March’s budget.
The submission to the spending review, which is pencilled for later in the autumn, says the result of productivity gains resulting from the centre’s work could lead to an additional 450,000 jobs.
It says: “With the UK hosting COP26 in November 2021 and the Covid-19 global recovery increasingly focusing on the development of deep tech, such as AI and green technologies, there is an opportunity for the UK to take a lead and establish itself as key hub for green tech development.”
The wide-ranging submission also calls on the government to hold pathfinder auctions this year for both green and blue hydrogen production in order to attract private investment into the fledgling technology.
These must then grow year-on-year in order to develop large-scale hydrogen plants by the mid-2020s, it says: “If we don’t, we will fall behind Germany, the Netherlands and China who are already investing heavily.”
And Energy UK urges the government to establish a centrally funded “ambitious” domestic energy efficiency and low-carbon heat retrofit programme, which should focus initially on vulnerable homes in less affluent parts of the UK.
These regions could also be targeted for grants to set up large-scale low carbon heat pathfinder projects, to aid the government’s agenda to “level up” the UK’s economic performance.
Sunak is also urged to provide long term certainty on the future of the Warm Home Discount (WHD) by making a multiple year funding commitment.
But any extension of the WHD beyond next April should allow for reform of the scheme, including fully data matching scheme recipients and potentially removing current exemptions, which mean that not all energy suppliers are currently required to participate.
On the electrification of transport, Energy UK urges that all new vehicle sales should be zero emission by 2030.
To bolster the confidence of consumers nervous about switching to EVs, the submission says the Rapid Charging Fund announced in March’s Budget should be deployed as soon as possible.
Greater funding for types of charging, which are not currently commercially viable like seasonal tourist hotspots, should also be considered.
The submission also calls on the government to bring forward proposals on a funding model for new nuclear in the UK and provide ‘urgent clarity’ on its chosen mechanism to deliver a carbon price after the UK leaves the EU ETS (emissions trading system) at the end of the Brexit transition period in December.
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