Assured Energy Outlook: Issue 21 - June 2018

The government said in April that it will advise independent advisors the Committee on Climate Change to consider a net zero target for 2050 in its next review.

The cross-party group is led by Conservative MP Simon Clarke who said the target would “spur innovation, building on existing British know-how to get us all the way to net zero, creating new industries and jobs across the UK in clean technologies like carbon capture and storage.”

The group also includes former Labour Leader Ed Miliband, Environmental Audit Committee Chair Mary Creagh, Green MP Caroline Lucas and Lib Dem Energy Spokesperson Baroness Featherstone.

The Bright Blue report too said there was a strong case for the UK adopting the target. It highlighted that in the decade since the Climate Change Act was introduced, advances in clean technologies mean that decarbonisation in some sectors of the economy has become cheaper and more practical. It also said that there is a strong scientific and political case, with climate scientists calling for greater urgency and the Paris agreement making more ambitious domestic climate goals “necessary and possible”.

The report concluded that UK businesses are well- positioned to be at the forefront of providing new zero-carbon products and services to the global marketplace but emphasised that any target must be must be “technically achievable” to ensure success...read more