The REA has warned the UK government against any slowing down on green targets after a speech by Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho today in which she said London does not want to be a “Net Zero Leviathan of central planning”.
The association said Coutinho’s comments appear to intimate London may look to go slower on delivery of green energy targets and polices.
The DESNZ Secretary gave a speech on Tuesday railing against “great untruths”, including that everything required for net zero has already been invented and government needs only to implement it.
“To this, I say no. When you look at the pace of technological change that we’ve seen in the last 10 years alone, it’s astounding how many times a week that I hear that,” she said.
“But we must leave space for new innovations, the likes of which we haven’t even begun to imagine.”
She added: “Let me tell you something – we face a fork in the road and the first path is one that I don’t want to take us down.
“It’s one with ever-increasing and narrowing sets of targets, where government dictates outputs and prices. Where a net zero leviathan of central planning crushes our brilliant enterprise economy.
“But the second is where we live with some uncertainty, knowing that it is one of the key stimulants of risk and product development that competes to win over consumers.
“The second path gives us the space to tackle emissions whilst also making sure we can keep the lights on and costs low for British families and businesses.”
REA chief Nina Skorupska said Coutinho is right to focus on innovation but said government has a major role to play.
“As the energy industry has been saying for many years, if you want to deliver affordable energy security, you need stable and long-term polices against which both innovations can be developed, and investments made. The UK’s climate targets and current polices are key to this. They allow businesses to plan, develop supply chains, build up skills and create jobs, all of which ultimately help reduce prices to the benefit of UK consumers,” she said.
“Going into an election, industry wants to see a clear vision backed by ambitious policies. This means ensuring that existing commitments are not watered down, while delivering sensible policies that ensure the UK remains an attractive market for investment in our world leading innovative renewable energy sector.”