UK sets out its plan for ‘decarbonising’ the economy

The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan plots how the country will cut its emissions by 34 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020. This is a step on the way to achieving a reduction of at least 80 per cent by 2050.  

Every government department has been allocated its own carbon budget, as the government pilots a new system to run alongside financial budgets. Departments will have to live within these when taking major policy decisions.

The Transition Plan promises that by 2020 more than 1.2 million people will be in green jobs, seven million homes will have had home energy makeovers, with more than 1.5 million households supported to produce their own clean energy; 40 per cent of electricity will be from three low carbon sources of renewables, nuclear and clean coal; and the average new car will emit 40 per cent less carbon than now.

Alongside the Plan, the government published the UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, setting out the help it will give industry. This paints the transition as a massive global opportunity for industries and regions where the UK has competitive or commercial advantages, including offshore wind, marine power and carbon capture and storage. The strategy includes the first allocations from the £405 million funding for green industry and technology announced in the recent annual budget.

A third document, the Renewable Energy Strategy, maps out how the government will deliver the UK’s target of getting 15 per cent of all energy for electricity, heat and transport from renewables by 2020, while a Low Carbon Transport Plan sets out how carbon emissions from domestic transport will be cut by 14 per cent over the next decade.

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said the UK is already the sixth largest economy for low carbon goods and services, which are globally worth £3 trillion and growing. “We must combine the dynamism of the private sector with a strategic role for government to deliver the benefits of innovation, growth and job creation in the UK.”

In the power sector, the government announced £6 million to start development of a smart electricity grid and said it will set out a policy road map next spring. It also announced the launch of the new Office for Renewable Energy Deployment to speed up the growth of renewables; £11.2 million to help regions and local authorities prepare for and speed-up planning decisions on renewable and low carbon energy; and gave approval for the country’s largest biomass power station on Teesside.

There will be up to £120 million from low carbon investment funding to support the offshore wind industry, with a further £60 million for wave and tidal energy. There will be up to £10 million for testing facilities at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Northumberland and up to £8 million for the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys.

A further £22 million will be invested in a new Marine Renewables Proving Fund for testing and demonstration of wave and tidal technologies and £6 million of funding to explore areas of potential “hot rocks” to be used for geothermal energy.

For the first time the Transition Plan outlines moves to cut emissions from agriculture, including support for anaerobic digestion to turn waste and manure into renewable energy and support for energy efficient and low carbon farming.