UK set to miss 2020 targets

The UK is on course to miss its legally binding renewable target for 2020, according to a leaked letter.

The correspondence between Secretary of State Amber Rudd and fellow ministers reveals the UK is on track to miss its European-agreed 15% primary renewable energy target by an estimated 50TWh – a shortfall of almost 25%.  

The letter, published  by the The Ecologist, says the gap will be filled by using biofuels, buying in green power and ‘credits’ from abroad.

The letter to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Cabinet Office’s Oliver Letwin, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin begins by setting out the scale of what the UK has to achieve:

“Beyond a flat rate of renewables for each member state, the effort share for meeting the EU-wide 20% target was based on GDP. As a result of this, and the fact that the UK started from a very low base of renewables deployment, our target requires amongst the most significant annual growth in renewables deployment (16% average annual growth from 2011 to 2020) of any member state.”

Rudd goes onto write on how the UK can find additional renewables deployment stating: “Officials in Whitehall are reviewing policy options open to us to address this c.30TWh shortfall through additional deployment in heat, electricity and transport.”

She also suggest the UK could just “buy it in from abroad”, specifically Norway’s hydroelectric dams, but also points out this will not work as the required electrical connection will not be ready on time.

The letter states: “Additional deployment of electricity focuses on importing renewable electricity from Norway via the planned interconnector. This could deliver a maximum of 10TWh, depending on market forces. However, my officials do not expect the interconnector to be in operation until late 2021 at the earliest, and therefore would not strictly help the UK to reach its 2020 target.”

In the absence of this measure, Rudd sais the UK would need to “purchase renewables deployment later in the decade from other EU member states which have over-achieved the target”.

She said: “There are two ways to do this. The first would see the government directly support a specific renewables project in another EU or European Economic Area Member State or third country, with an agreed proportion of the renewable energy generated being transmitted to the EU where the project occurs in a third country.

“The alternative is to reach an agreement with an EU or EEA Member State, which is likely to over-achieve on its target, to buy ‘statistical credits’ from it in 2020. The market for such transactions does not yet exist, and there is a low likelihood that sufficient credits will be available to meet the total UK shortfall of 50TWh.”

Many in the industry are now angry that she misled Parliament by promising the UK was “on course” to deliver, adding that this shows the “dark side” to the government.

Greenpeace head of energy Daisy Sands said: “This letter shows us the dark side of the government’s incoherent energy policy in full technicolour. For the first time, we learn that the government is expecting to miss the EU’s legally binding renewables target. This is hugely shocking. But more deplorably, it is willfully hiding this from public scrutiny.

“The government is planning on cutting support for the solar and wind subsidies in the name of affordability.  But perversely, we see that the government  believes investing in renewable energy projects involving buying power from abroad is more desirable than supporting home grown renewable energy industries.

“Even more worryingly, it seems the government is seeking to haggle with the EU to revise down our legal commitments.  This policy makes no environmental or economic sense as the UK is losing jobs and affordable clean, renewable energy sources.”

The revelation of missed targets came as the Met Office confirmed that global temperature rises had reached 1 degree for the first time.

Rudd said the milestone was proof “we need to take urgent action to tackle global warming and move to a low carbon future”.

Image: DECC