CCC chief labels Labour’s net zero target as ‘stretching’

Labour would have to immediately focus on achieving its stated goal of decarbonising electricity generation by 2030 if it forms the next government, the chief executive Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said.

In a briefing to tie in with the publication of the climate advisory body’s new report on energy decarbonisation, Chris Stark was quizzed on the opposition’s ambitious goal to decarbonise generation by the end of this decade, five years ahead of the government’s 2035 target date.

He said Labour’s target might be slightly eased because fewer electric vehicles and heat pumps on the system than five years later means the level of electricity demand would be lower in 2030.

However bringing forward the target would mean accelerating much of the work that needs to be done to drive fossil fuels off the system, Stark said: “If Labour want to do it by 2030 that makes it even harder.

“It’s the most stretching of targets. I don’t think we’re quite at the point of saying it can’t be met but it is a huge challenge.

“You can expect an incoming Labour government would have to turn absolutely everything towards this on day one of that administration if they wanted to pull it off.

“The prize at the end of it is so big that of course it might be worth it for them and I’m sure that’s what (shadow energy secretary) Ed Miliband would say if he was here with us today but I think the goal is very stretching.”

But Stark said the current government will fall “well short” of its objective to decarbonise the power sector by 2035 if it fails to up its pace on the issue.

On a recent visit to Brussels, the CCC chief executive said he had seen much greater urgency amongst EU policy makers about responding to recent US government moves to provide greater tax incentives for low carbon technologies.

“We do not see the same pace from UK ministers on this. We need to see substantial shifts to allow us to scale up some of the key technologies,” he said

“At the moment, the system is just not set up to deliver that kind of scale of ambition or pace.”

The UK’s current approach to the consenting, planning and regulation of key low carbon technologies is “flat footed” and “strikingly different from the discussion that’s taking place in the EU at the moment”, he said: “We simply don’t have a regulatory system and planning regime that can deliver the infrastructure that we need at the pace that was required. That looks to us to be a major issue.

“There’s a very, very small window now for this to happen so the government has got to respond,” Stark said, adding that key decisions on net zero cannot be put off until the next election because the intervening period will be completely critical for making investment decisions.

“This is absolutely central to the goal of net zero and central to the health of the economy over the coming years so we’ve got to see progress on this,” he added.