Weekend press round-up: Rising tensions over net zero costs

There are rising tensions between the prime minister and the chancellor over the costs of reaching net zero emissions, the Telegraph has reported. Meanwhile, the UN’s climate change panel will warn the planet is on course to hit 1.5C of global warming ten years earlier than previously thought and EDF delays its final decision on whether to proceed with its Sizewell C nuclear plant. This and more in Utility Week’s round-up of the weekend papers.

Boris Johnson’s push for net zero plunged into chaos

Boris Johnson’s green agenda has been plunged into chaos amid fears that the costs of reaching “net zero” could cripple working class families in newly-won Tory seats.

A Treasury review of the costs of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 has been delayed since the spring. There are concerns the analysis highlights that the poorest households will be hit the hardest by the ambition, which will involve policies such as stripping out gas boilers and switching to electric or hydrogen cars.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, is said to be increasingly concerned about a looming crisis over the cost of living for British households, as the country faces the triple threat of rocketing energy bills, the potential for rising prices as a result of inflation, and an as-yet unspecified suite of policies to enable the country to meet the net zero target.

The Treasury review has been held back amid fears that the analysis will lead MPs and the public to the conclusion that Mr Johnson’s net zero strategy would be politically toxic in the Red Wall seats won by the Conservatives in December 2019.

The disclosure comes amid claims of rising tensions between Mr Johnson and the Chancellor, with longstanding friction between Number 10 and Number 11 over the Prime Minister’s spending demands.

On Saturday night it was reported that Mr Johnson had expressed fury over the leak of a letter in which Mr Sunak lobbied for a relaxation of travel restrictions. In a barbed joke, Mr Johnson threatened to demote Mr Sunak to Health Secretary.

The Government had said in December that the review would be published in “spring 2021”. However, it is among several key documents to have been significantly delayed amid wrangling in Whitehall over how to achieve the target without disproportionately “clobbering” the finances of working class families, and plunging the country into hundreds of billions of pounds of further debt.

The issue is likely to be at the centre of Mr Sunak’s autumn spending review, which is expected to decide the overall pots of money available for subsidising green technologies such as hydrogen.

Meanwhile, one adviser of COP26, the climate conference due to be hosted by Mr Johnson in November, said: “I don’t think ministers knew what they were getting in to” when they set targets for the conference, such as securing commitments from attendees that will limit the rise in global temperatures to no more than 1.5C.

One official said: “There was a massive expectation on us as members of the G7 and home of the industrial revolution. Boris was trying to grab as much as he can and to be a mighty great host… But Covid has added massive complications.”

Amid growing disquiet among Tory MPs, a new net zero scrutiny group of backbenchers is being formed to hold ministers to account over the plans. Craig Mackinlay, its chairman, warned that spending vast sums on subsidising green schemes would be seen by the public as “aping” some of Jeremy Corbyn’s pledges at the 2019 election.

He said: “The Conservatives’ strongest hand has always been credibility: credibility to deliver good economics and good governance. To ape the failed policies of an extreme Labour politician does not seem to be the way of electoral success.”

He added: “I’m very pleased the Treasury are actually thinking of this with a financial head on rather than just a warm feeling.”

Downing Street sources insisted that Mr Johnson was “acutely aware” of the need to monitor household finances to ensure that policies aimed at tackling climate change are “affordable for everyone”.

A Whitehall source said: “Obviously, with anything like this, those with less money are going to be disproportionately hit more. That’s common sense. That’s why work is ongoing to ensure the best solutions to ensure we hit 2050 without extraordinary costs to ordinary working class families.”

The Telegraph

EDF delays final decision on Sizewell C

The timeline for EDF to decide whether to go ahead with the £20bn Sizewell C power station has slipped amid a lengthy planning approval process that is playing out as funding negotiations with ministers continue.

The French power giant now expects to make a final investment decision on the Suffolk plant at the end of 2022 or in 2023, compared to its previous expectations of mid-2022.

The plant, set to generate enough power for about 6m homes, would be the second new UK nuclear plant in a generation after Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which EDF is building with minority Chinese partner China General Nuclear (CGN).

Almost all of the UK’s ageing plants are set to shut down by the end of this decade, leaving a gap in the nation’s power supply just as demand grows due to rising use of electric cars.

Nuclear power provides about 17pc of the nation’s annual power supply, and maintaining at least some of that capacity is regarded as important in Whitehall because it does not generate carbon emissions.

EDF is in negotiations with the Government about a funding deal for Sizewell C and will also need external investors.

Legislation is likely to be brought forward to allow developers to recoup costs during construction from household energy bills.

However, talks have been overshadowed in recent weeks by reports that ministers are seeking ways to block CGN from Sizewell and future UK nuclear projects. CGN has a 20pc development stake in Sizewell with an option to participate in the construction phase.

EDF submitted its application for a development consent order to the planning inspectorate last May, delayed by two months due to the pandemic, and has since made more than a dozen changes.

The Telegraph

Rise of 1.5C likely to be reached ten years early

The planet is odds-on to hit 1.5C of global warming within 20 years, the world’s leading climate scientists will warn in a milestone report tomorrow.

The paper, produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is the starkest warning yet about the speed and scale of warming.

Experts said the report would paint a “devastating” picture. The document is predicted to trigger a “turning point” in the run-up to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November.

A 1.5C rise in average global temperatures on pre-industrial levels is widely considered to be the point beyond which climate change will become increasingly dangerous. The 2015 Paris Agreement committed countries to limiting warming to 1.5C. So far average temperatures have increased 1.2C.

The cabinet minister Alok Sharma, president of Cop26, said countries must work harder to reduce emissions and ensure the threshold is not breached. “This report will be a big wake-up call for countries to do even more,” he said.

“I suspect the IPCC will reinforce the fact that we are running out of time. Glasgow will be about keeping 1.5C in reach. It will genuinely be a decisive moment in history.”

Tomorrow’s report, produced by 200 scientists from 60 countries, is the first comprehensive assessment of the physical science of climate change since 2013. An interim report, published in 2018, said global warming was likely to reach 1.5C between 2030 and 2052.

According to insiders who have seen the final document, the report brings this window forward by a decade to between 2021 and 2040.

The scientists have drawn up five scenarios for future warming, depending on whether the world continues to burn through fossil fuels. All five say it is “more likely than not”, at the very least, that the 1.5C threshold will be reached within this time period. Three of the five scenarios are more pessimistic, estimating that it is “likely”. Under the most optimistic scenario, temperatures are “more likely than not” to come back below 1.5C by the end of the century, with a temporary overshoot of no more than 0.1C. This would require a big cut in emissions.

The Times

UK launches £4m fund to run fibre optic cables through water pipes

The government has launched a £4m fund to back projects trialling running fibre optic broadband cables through water pipes to help connect hard-to-reach homes without digging up roads.

The money will also be used to test out monitors in pipes that can help water companies identify and repair leaks more quickly. About a fifth of water put into public supply every day is lost via leaks and it is hoped that sensors could help deliver water companies’ commitment to reduce water loss by half.

Infrastruture works, in particular installing new ducts and poles, can make up as much as four-fifths of the costs to industry of building new gigabit-capable broadband networks, the government said.

The project is designed to help cut those costs, and is part of a plan to improve broadband and mobile signals in rural areas.

The digital infrastructure minister, Matt Warman, said: “The cost of digging up roads and land is the biggest obstacle telecoms companies face when connecting hard-to-reach areas to better broadband, but beneath our feet there is a vast network of pipes reaching virtually every building in the country.

“So we are calling on Britain’s brilliant innovators to help us use this infrastructure to serve a dual purpose of serving up not just fresh and clean water but also lightning-fast digital connectivity.”

The Guardian

Villagers are first to burn hydrogen… but don’t notice

The residents of Winlaton did not know that on Wednesday they became guinea pigs in a home-heating experiment that will help to determine whether the UK meets its climate targets.

More than 650 homes in the village near Newcastle upon Tyne became the first on the gas grid to get hydrogen to burn in boilers, cookers, hobs and fires. Northern Gas Networks (NGN) sent a letter last month saying the trial would start “shortly”, but did not give a date.

The company has said the customers would have noticed no difference, and did not tell them when the trial was starting in part out of fear that it would be blamed for any boiler problems.

The proportion of hydrogen in the gas began at 2 per cent and will increase over the coming days to 20 per cent, the maximum that can be blended with natural gas without new appliances. If the trial is successful, millions of homes could get a 20 per cent hydrogen blend in the next few years.

Hydrogen produces no carbon dioxide when it burns and, depending on how it is made, can cut overall emissions. “Green hydrogen” is produced by using renewable energy to electrolyse water. Blue hydrogen is made from gas in plants that capture the carbon.

If all homes in the UK got 20 per cent green or blue hydrogen, CO2 emissions would fall by an amount equivalent to taking 2.5 million cars off the road.

The gas grid could eventually be converted to run on 100 per cent hydrogen, but this would require new appliances and pipes would need more safety valves. A trial is due to begin in Fife at the end of next year in which 300 homes will receive 100 per cent hydrogen. The government is considering a “pilot hydrogen town” before 2030.

The Winlaton experiment is being conducted by NGN and Cadent, the gas network, partly to check that adding hydrogen does not cause more leaks. The village is typical in having a mix of modern plastic and old metal pipes, which are leakier. Hydrogen molecules are far smaller than methane ones and tests have shown that more escapes through cracks.

The Times

E-lorries to charge on the go beneath motorway power lines

The “slow lane” on motorways could be converted so that lorries can switch from diesel to electricity using overhead power lines, according to a proposal being considered to speed up the decarbonisation of transport.

HGVs would operate like a tram or trolley bus, but would instantly switch to battery power, diesel or other fuels when overtaking or on roads without overhead lines.

The power lines are similar to those used by trams on Manchester’s Metrolink, rather than the high-voltage system used on mainline railways. Cars and other vehicles could continue using the lanes.

It is understood that the Treasury and No 10 are considering a £5.7 billion scheme to adapt some of the country’s busiest freight routes, covering 2,000 miles by 2030. The cost is less than a third of the price of the £18.7 billion Crossrail project, which is more than three years behind schedule.

The project, proposed by the German transport firm, Siemens Mobility, would connect routes radiating from Britain’s main ports, including Dover, Edinburgh, Felixstowe, Glasgow, Grimsby, Hull, Immingham, Liverpool and Port Talbot.

The roads affected in this phase would be the M1, M4, M6, M8, M20, M25, M62, M180 and A14. It would cost £19 billion to convert 9,300 miles of roads by 2040.

Will Wilson, the chief executive of Siemens Mobility, said: “By going further and faster to introduce eHighways, we can slash carbon emissions from HGVs in the UK. Through investing in this proven technology Britain could have electric and hybrid trucks running between our major ports before the end of this decade.”

The company said that it was in “continuing discussions” with government officials and is understood to be willing to invest in the project.

The Times

Utility Week’s weekend press round-up is a curation of articles in the national newspapers relating to the energy and water sector. The views expressed are not those of Utility Week or Faversham House.