Announcing net zero carbon plans with target dates for achieving them – such as those of the UK government in 2021 – was always recognised as being ambitious. The UK became the first country to enshrine the goals in law, so was obviously staking a bit of reputation on achieving them.
It was reasonable to expect then that a proper plan would have been developed to deliver on those targets. So it might have come as a surprise to most of us to learn that the government has in fact failed to develop any plans that would achieve decarbonisation in the power sector by 2035.
Parliament’s spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says the government has done little to develop an integrated and coherent plan to deliver its net zero carbon ambitions.
The ‘plan’, which is now being said to not actually exist in any meaningful form, was for massive investment in renewables across nuclear, solar and wind power. The PAC says it is sceptical that these expansion plans are credible and has called for annual progress updates to Parliament.
The Government estimates that up to £400 billion of public and private investment in new generating capacity will be needed by 2037, but the PAC is unconvinced that the private sector has been given enough clarity to confidently invest. Another £300 billion or so needs to be spent on the power distribution to connect all the new renewables to the national grid. There’s no sign of an overarching plan for that either.
The PAC report says that while the government has many separate ongoing power decarbonisation plans, its ambitions are jeopardised by this lack of an integrated and coherent delivery plan. The Government’s plans to improve energy efficiency and change consumer behaviour, both key to meeting net zero, are not clear, the MP’s say.
The committee wants a delivery plan to be pulled together by autumn 2023 at the latest, and says the plan must also set out when and how the costs of decarbonising the power sector will be likely to have an impact on energy bill payers and taxpayers. The MPs argue that costs to build, maintain and operate the power system are typically passed onto consumer bills, but the government has not yet assessed what the costs of the clean energy transition will ultimately mean for the general public.
Why has the planning of this scale of investment been so neglected? The PAC’s inquiry heard that the government’s focus on providing energy bill support to manage high gas prices, including those due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, distracted it from longer-term activities on decarbonisation.
PAC Chair Dame Meg Hillier MP, said: “What is the plan? It has now long been understood and accepted that greening our economy is an existential priority, with the Government setting itself the target of securing an entirely low-carbon power supply by 2035.
“But without a coherent delivery plan to get there, the Government will find it harder to know what decisions it must take, and when, to ensure that it can realistically reach its ambitions.”
An overarching plan is obviously needed, but there is as yet little sign that the government appreciates this. Which calls into question whether it is serious at all about decarbonising power or other carbon emitting sectors.
Nick Barrett
Editor