The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report underlines the urgent need to secure more clean power in this year’s UK renewable energy auction, according to RenewableUK.
The trade body’s executive director of policy Ana Musat said the research, which today sounded a ‘final warning’ for society on the climate crisis, means “swift, effective, practical action against climate change at a much faster pace and at a far greater scale” is required.
“The deep, rapid and sustained cuts in greenhouse gas emissions which the reports says are essential to avert a climate catastrophe can only be achieved if we accelerate the transition to clean power,” said Musat.
“As the report notes, increasing finance to attract more investment is vital to achieve our climate change goals, so Governments around the world need to send clear signals to investors to enable this.
“The UK Government has an immediate opportunity to step up by ensuring that this year’s auction for contracts to generate clean power secures the maximum amount of capacity available. Our analysis shows that the current budget is likely to secure less than half of the 5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity eligible for this year’s auction – and that’s even if there were no other renewable technologies competing with it.”
She added more clean energy projects have become eligible to compete in this year’s auction since the budget was set, so this should be reflected in an immediate reassessment of the level of funding available.
This will bring forward vital new projects as soon as possible to increase Britain’s energy security, cut the need for expensive gas and move us closer towards net zero, added Musat.
“Such a move would also allow the UK to retain its position as a world leader in tackling climate change, which remains the biggest single threat to our way of life.”
Last week, the Government announced an overall budget of £205m for this summer’s auction for Contracts for Difference (CfDs).
If the entire pipeline of offshore wind projects eligible for this year’s auction (5GW) were to be secured, developers would have to bid in at prices even lower than last year’s auction, even though the costs of labour and raw materials have increased by up to 20% since then, said R-UK.