White Paper outlines ten-year decarbonisation plans

The Government has released its long-awaited Energy White Paper to “clean up our energy system, support up to 220,000 British jobs, and keep bills affordable as we transition to net zero by 2050.”

Building on the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, the Energy White Paper sets out specific steps the government will take over the next decade to cut emissions from industry, transport, and buildings by 230m tonnes – equivalent to taking 7.5m petrol cars off the road permanently – while supporting hundreds of thousands of new green jobs.

The Government says it will put affordability at the heart of the UK’s shift away from fossil fuels by boosting competition in the energy retail market to tackle the ‘loyalty penalty’ – longstanding customers who pay more than new ones – and by providing at least £6.7bn in support to the fuel poor and most vulnerable over the next 6 years.

Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma (pictured) said: “Today’s plan establishes a decisive and permanent shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels, towards cleaner energy sources that will put our country at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution.

Through a major programme of investment and reform, we are determined to both decarbonise our economy in the most cost-effective way, while creating new sunrise industries and revitalising our industrial heartlands that will support new green jobs for generations to come.”

Alongside the Energy White Paper, the government has also confirmed that it is to enter negotiations with EDF in relation to the Sizewell C project in Suffolk as it considers options to enable investment in at least one nuclear power station by the end of this Parliament.

Core parts of the Energy White Paper include:

• supporting up to 220,000 jobs in the next 10 years. This includes long-term jobs in major infrastructure projects for power generation, carbon capture storage and hydrogen, as well as a major programme of retrofitting homes for improved energy efficiency and clean heat;

• transforming the UK’s energy system from one that was historically based on fossil fuels to one that is fit for a net zero economy, changing how we heat our homes and travel, doubling our electricity use, and harnessing renewable energy supplies;

• keeping bills affordable for consumers by making the energy retail market truly competitive. This will include offering people a simple method of switching to a cheaper energy tariff, and testing automatically switching consumers to fairer deals to tackle “loyalty penalties”;

• generating emission-free electricity by 2050 with a trajectory that will lead to overwhelmingly decarbonised power in the 2030s;

• establishing a UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) from 1 January 2021 to replace the current EU ETS at the end of the Transition Period. It increases ambition on reducing emissions, and provides continuation of emissions trading for UK businesses and certainty on how they operate;

• delivering ambitious electricity commitments to deliver 40GW of offshore wind by 2030, including 1GW of floating wind, enough to power every home in the country – while attracting new offshore wind manufacturers to the UK;

• investing £1bn in state-of-the-art carbon capture storage in four industrial clusters by 2030 – sucking carbon out of industrial processes to stop emissions escaping to the air. Four low carbon clusters will be set up by 2030, and at least one fully net zero cluster by 2040, stimulating the market to attract new investors and manufacturers to reinvigorate industrial heartlands;

• kick-starting the hydrogen economy by working with industry to aim for 5GW of production by 2030, backed up by a new £240m net zero Hydrogen Fund for low carbon hydrogen production;

• investing £1.3bn to accelerate the rollout of charge points for electric vehicles in homes, streets and on motorways as well as up to £1bn to support the electrification of cars, including for the mass-production of the batteries needed for electric vehicles;

• supporting the lowest paid with their bills through a £6.7bn package of measures that could save families in old inefficient homes up to £400. This includes extending the Warm Home Discount Scheme to 2026 to cover an extra three quarters of a million households and giving eligible households £150 off their electricity bills each winter. The £2bn Green Homes Grant announced by the Chancellor has been extended for a further year in the Ten Point Plan;

• moving away from fossil fuel boilers, helping to make people’s homes warmer, while keeping bills low. By the mid-2030s we expect all newly installed heating systems to be low carbon or to be appliances that we are confident can be converted to a clean fuel supply.

The energy industry reaction to the White Paper has been positive. Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive at Energy UK, said: “Today’s White Paper reveals the scale and opportunity of the energy transition, with aims in it to at least double the amount of clean electricity produced today, start making our homes warmer and greener, and help the switch to electric vehicles.

“The energy industry will do our bit to innovate, supporting our customers so that they benefit from the net-zero transition and investing in the green infrastructure we need – but clear policies from government help us do that. This is what the White Paper – and other publications over the next year – should provide.”

Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive at UK Green Building Council, said: “We welcome the level of ambition set out in the Energy White Paper, which provides a foundation for key decisions to be taken that are critical to the UK’s transition to net zero carbon. On the back of Government’s recently updated carbon targets ahead of COP26, this should provide further confidence to the private sector on the direction of travel.

“The announcement of funding to help people with energy bills in inefficient properties is welcome, but this cannot be a substitute for measures to ensure that those properties are retrofitted to permanently guard those residents against run-away energy bills. However, it is very encouraging that Government has promised to consult on regulatory measures to improve the energy performance of owner-occupied homes, which follows hot on the heels of the recent advice of the Climate Change Committee to ensure homes are upgraded at the point of sale. Furthermore, Government has recognised that this needs to form part of a long term framework, including incentives to take action.

“It is also positive to see announced that all rented non-domestic buildings will be brought up to EPC Band B by 2030, which is strongly supported by the property sector.

“Unfortunately we are still playing a waiting game for much of the crucial detail relating to the built environment, including the Future Homes Standard and the long-anticipated buildings and heat strategy.”