White paper to set out wider renewables targets

The upcoming energy white paper will include targets for a wide range of low carbon technologies such as onshore wind and solar, Kwasi Kwarteng has signalled.

Quizzed on the long-delayed paper at the CBI’s climate change conference, held virtually today (14 September), the minister of state for energy said he was “very hopeful” that it would appear in October.

As part of a road map for decarbonisation, he said there may be targets for hydrogen, onshore wind and solar, similar to the 40GW by 2030 offshore wind generation goal set by the Conservative party in its election manifesto last year.

Kwarteng also told the conference that he hopes to see the UK launch a green sovereign bond to help to finance the transition to net zero.

He said he had been “struck” by the “huge investor appetite” in these products, noting that Germany’s launch of a green sovereign bond earlier this month had been “three times over-subscribed”.

And the minister expressed optimism that a transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 is feasible while stressing the importance of creating government mechanisms to stimulate private sector investment in low carbon solutions.

He said: “We have the technology now, it’s not science fiction. The real concern is how to incentivise and use private capital to scale up production.

“The government’s job is to attract people to invest capital so we can drive down costs.

“Government spending on its own won’t get you where you want to be because too great a level of investment is required.”

Kwarteng also told delegates that Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)  officials are working to consolidate a number of department’s decarbonisation funding streams into a single pot in order to make the process more transparent for those seeking to access support.

He said the government is “absolutely focused” on drawing up a hydrogen strategy, which he added is due to be published in the next “six months to a year”.

Mike Lockett, UK country chairman for Uniper, told the CBI event the UK’s hydrogen sector has “massive potential”.

“The issue is a market mechanism to drive the project,” he said, adding that the industry wants an “over-arching” hydrogen strategy, embracing fields such as transport and heat.

“If we are going to replicate the scale of offshore wind, we would like to see it (the strategy) extended to all sectors.”