‘Unwise’ to delay on emissions reduction plan

Publish emissions reduction plan or lose investment to competitor nations and push up decarbonisation costs, warns Lord Deben

There is an urgent need for the government to publish its delayed emissions reduction plan in order to meet its 2030 carbon emissions reduction targets, according to parliament’s climate change watchdog. 

Further delay to the publication of what has been rebadged the clean growth plan in Whitehall is “neither justified nor wise” says the latest annual progress report of the Committee for Climate Change (CCC), which monitors the UK’s efforts to tackle rising global warming.

The plan was due to be published by department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) late last year.

“It is necessary for the government to publish the plan on how is going to meet its budget as rapidly as possible,” Lord Deben, the CCC’s chair said at a briefing earlier this week.

“If we fall behind in dealing with climate change, it become more difficult and more expensive.”

He said that while the government had faced an “unprecedented series” of events over the last past year, it still had to meet its statutory obligations under the Climate Change Act.

Lord Deben, who was environment secretary in Sir John Major’s government of the 1990s, also said that the UK risked losing out on low carbon energy investment.

“There will be much greater opportunities to invest elsewhere as people start to fulfil their commitments under Paris. The real issue is that unless Britain has a clear path that investors can rely on, there are other paces you can invest. We need to attract that investment. There is enough uncertainty in the British economy that if we don’t get this right, it will be damaging for our future

“There isn’t the mechanism and certainty for investors to start investing: 2020 is only a couple of years away and people are making investment decisions now.”

Until the BEIS publishes its emissions plan, the deprtment for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) will be unable to complete its 25-year plan that will set out the government’s proposed climate change mitigation measures, Deben added.

The CCC report recommends that in order to meet the fifth carbon budget targets the government must identify 80-100 TWh of additional low-carbon generation by 2030. The targets challenge the UK to reduced its emissions to 57 per cent of 1990 levels by the end of the next decade.

Matthew Bell, chief executive of the CCC, said that recent offshore wind wins and government backing for Hinkley would enable the UK to generate just over half of its electricity from low carbon sources. But “over and above” that level would require the additional low carbon generation.

Further measures that must be taken, according to the CCC, include accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles and a “clear strategy” to promote low carbon heating.

The report says that the low carbon heat strategy must address potential overheating in buildings as well as accelerating the delivery of energy efficiency measures, heat networks and heat pumps. And owners of existing buildings need to be given a ‘stable framework’ for improving the energy efficiency of their buildings, says the report.

Quizzed on the appointment of Michael Gove to become secretary of state at Defra, Lord Deben said there is a “very clear determination to achieve in the department and we hope to seize some of the benefit from that”.

Responding to the CCC’s report, Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said: “The progress we’re seeing now is the result of policies enacted under the [Conservative-Liberal Democrat] coalition, and it’s clear that since the 2015 election the government has been treading water. Unless ministers get on with setting new decarbonisation policies for the power sector, heating and transport, progress will stall and the UK will lose its leadership position.”

“Investors are ready and willing to put money into Britain’s low-carbon future – they just need clear, unequivocal signals from Government.”