UK must deliver energy change ‘at speed and scale’

The UK has been an early global green leader but needs to accelerate

The UK has been an early global green leader but needs to accelerate

The UK must be ‘pro green’ and deliver energy systems change at speed and scale, according to CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith.

In a speech today in London ahead of the General Election on Thursday, she said there was a “silence” from leaders on developing the specific technologies that will deliver on Net Zero.

“Will they be prepared to make decisions early so we can have more world-leading clusters like the Solent, which has the potential to develop hydrogen and CCUS to help decarbonise industry and transport?”

“Or Yorkshire and the Humber, where Phillips is working to decarbonise their refinery and deliver greener EV battery-grade graphite, with Enfinium leading on CCUS technologies?”

She added that while the UK cannot outspend the vast economic packages in the US and EU, it can “outsmart them” by playing to the country’s strengths and acting quickly.

The UK has been an early global green leader in green and was the first to write Net Zero into law.

“We at the CBI, as the voice of business, think whoever forms the next government can’t be pro-growth and deliver for our people, planet and communities without being pro-green. We must think about climate and nature together – not separately – as two sides of the same coin.”

“The numbers speak for themselves. In 2023, a year when the UK economy flatlined our Net Zero sector grew by 9%.”

Should it gain power, the Labour Party has pledged to invest £8.3bn in Great British Energy, over the next Parliament, which it will co-invest in leading technologies and support capital intensive projects.

The Conservative Party will keep the windfall tax on oil and gas companies in place until 2028-29, unless prices fall back to normal sooner, which will raise over £26bn, and will build the first two CCS clusters according to its Manifesto.

A report last week from Chris Skidmore, former energy minister who took the UK’s Net Zero legislation through parliament, and RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Dan McGrail, urges the next government to accelerate the pace of building new infrastructure to connect renewable energy projects to the grid, among other recommendations.

In May, the government launched a call for evidence for new options for transporting CO2, on top of the existing network of pipelines, supporting industry on the path to Net Zero.