UK energy plan seen as ‘half-hearted’

The UK's new energy plan unveiled on Thursday is a missed opportunity, full of half-baked, half-hearted policies that don't go far enough to power Britain's climate goals, according to green business groups and academics.

The 1,000-sided strategy has been criticised by many within Britain's green sectors who fear the country could surrender its leading role in climate action because of the government's business as usual approach to delivering green investments.

Environmental groups said the plans that are expected to form the basis of the government's revised strategy to meet its net zero ambitions also risk falling short of meeting legally binding climate targets, which could trigger further court action.

Grant Shapps, the energy and net zero secretary, has announced a wide-ranging strategy that includes carbon capture projects, nuclear energy, offshore windfarms, electric vehicles, home heat pumps and hydrogen power.

Most of the plans are based on existing government commitments and don't have new funding.

Josh Burke, a policy fellow at the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute, said that the lack of a long-term, economy-wide investment plan hurts investor confidence and prevents the UK from leading the green race. Joe Biden announced a $370 billion green plan for the US last autumn to lower energy costs while accelerating private investment in clean energy solutions as part of his Inflation Reduction Act. Concerns have been raised that the huge subsidies in the plan could lure the UK's key green industries across the Atlantic Ocean.

Instead of grasping this historic moment, the government has been left behind the Inflation Reduction Act and is not fully capitalising on the opportunities a green transition will provide. Burke said that companies are making investment decisions now and the UK will be even further behind in six months.

He believes that while the government is right to prioritize investment, the focus should be on technologies such as onshore wind that will reduce emissions in the short term and ensure energy security.

Ana Musat, an executive director at RenewableUK, said the plans did not go far enough to attract the investment we need in the renewable energy sector, as the competition for investment in renewable energy projects is fiercer than ever. We need much more than just a business as usual approach to kickstart investment on the level we need to boost energy security, cut consumer bills and reach net zero. Without that we won't get the UK-wide economic benefits of building up new clean energy supply chains, as they will go elsewhere where the investment environment is more conducive and attractive. After a successful legal challenge by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project, a revised plan is expected to be published by the end of the week to reduce the UK's carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth's head of policy, said the groups' lawyers were poised to act if the revised plan fell short. He said that the government should be scaling up and speeding up the race to net zero, but the plans look half-baked, half-hearted and dangerously lacking ambition. These announcements will do little to boost energy security, lower bills or put us on track to meet climate goals.

Mark Maslin, professor of climatology at University College London, said that at the moment the government announcement is more of the same, lacks insight to the energy issues and invests money in dead-end technology such as hydrogen.

The UK government missed the opportunity to change the UK's energy production and market. This is the time when innovative business-led initiatives are needed.