8th July 2020
The good news is that we can all do a lot less washing up at home in August if we take full advantage of Rishi Sunak’s offer to pay 50% of our food bills when we eat out mid-week. Great news many will agree despite still having to pay full price for the accompanying wine or beer!
However, amid the Chancellor’s £30 billion package of measures in today’s “Plan for Jobs” were also a series of significant measures, amounting to over £3 billion, to further support the development of the Green Economy. His lunchtime statement acknowledged that to meet the UK’s target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, emissions from heating buildings still need to be significantly reduced. In summary the steps announced were:
So how do the Chancellor’s announcements feed into the progress so far on the decarbonisation journey of UK PLC?
Later this month we expect to see the latest publication of the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), which provides statistical data on UK energy use. This will show that the decarbonisation of electricity continues to progress due to the increasing number of renewable generators, which are displacing the few remaining coal-fired power stations. This means that within a decade, carbon emissions from electricity have been halved.
For natural gas the story is very different. We have very little ‘green’ gas and demand has not reduced significantly. Of around 850TWh of gas used in the UK, only around 100TWh is used by Industry and a similar amount is used by the combined retail, properties and public sector. However, domestic use is over three times higher at over 300TWh. Most of the remaining consumption is used to generate electricity.
For some time, the Government has incentivised Industry to reduce energy consumption but there has been less focus on other gas users.
The Chancellor’s announcements on insulation grants and decarbonisation schemes show that savings opportunities in domestic, social and public sectors are now being targeted with the potential to realise significant carbon savings, not to mention reductions in energy bills.
The announcement of the ‘Gigafactory’ uses the same terminology as Tesla in developing a huge manufacturing plant dedicated to producing rechargeable batteries. Such batteries would most likely be used in the growing fleets of electric vehicles, but will also start to appear in some houses, particularly those with solar panels, as part of domestic load management systems.
The timing of these initiatives is designed to help kick-start the economy as we look at an uncertain economic future, but the truth is that Covid-19 will hopefully be eradicated in the next year or two. However, climate change will take much longer to control and sustainability… is forever!
To find out more about how Inenco can help support your own journey to carbon net zero and broader environmental sustainability journey contact us on 08451 46 36 26.