With all of the UK Government attention being on pre-Budget communication this week, it would be easy to have missed some other expectation-setting that was going on around the country’s net zero ambition.
A new Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan has set out how the Government intends to continue to reduce emissions while lowering energy bills and creating jobs — importantly, making a direct connection between a cleaner economy and the growth opportunities it would offer.
The UK is broadly on target to meet its 2030 emissions goals, but the new plan sets out intentions for continuing to do so into the decade that follows. Under the legal obligations of that Climate Change Act, the Government is compelled to set out “carbon budgets” that squeeze emissions over five-year periods and are effectively stepping stones towards the overall 2050 net zero target.
It contains a range of cross-sector measures, from reducing aviation emissions to methane suppression, and from backing for home heating technologies to ways of reducing energy costs. Its implications have continued to be assessed by industry and national media since it was unveiled last week.
The Guardian outlined how the plan was intended to bring more clarity and get the UK’s net zero drive “back on track” amidst a political war of words between the Government, Reform UK and the Conservatives, with the latter two claiming that current policies will cause undue social and economic damage.
Yet the political crosswinds have continued, with net zero secretary Ed Miliband most often the target of criticism from the political right over policy and pace of change.
The Telegraph went on the assault a few days later over the environmental impact of planned cable infrastructure to connect offshore wind energy generation to the mainland.
The newspaper also ran a piece on the Government’s own data showing that most Britons do not believe Mr Miliband will achieve net zero. “It is another blow for Mr Miliband, a day after the Government slashed forecasts for the amount of electricity it expects wind farms to generate,” it said.
And Tony Blair entered the fray again in Politico, saying that net zero plans for the aviation sector needed to be accelerated.
What has actually changed then? The main thing is that the plan gives greater long-term certainty in areas that are both critical to the green transition and need longer timeframes to be applied, such as how buildings are heated and how changes in agricultural practices for food production can limit greenhouse gasses. For businesses in those sectors and their supply chains, the clarity is surely a step forward, even if the policy direction will doubtless remain in the political spotlight.
What hasn’t changed is the continued portrayal of Ed Miliband by the right as a social pariah while the Government looks to address long-term emissions reduction, at a time when that is just one point on a long list of priorities which are under increasing, and increasingly politicised, scrutiny.
