Government delays climate change action, again

The 'leak' on Wednesday to Sky News that the Government is once again delaying the 'Heat and Buildings strategy' is, if true, yet another delay in implementing the net zero policy required to deliver the Prime Minister's much touted net zero ambition.

The Committee on Climate Change has recently taken the government to account. On the 24^th of June they released a report clearly stating that the ambition was not being met with credible plans and government was showing a lack of leadership.

Vattenfall has a long track record in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK and has successfully invested in on-shore and off-shore zero carbon power generation that has created high quality long term jobs in the UK’s wind industry. The undoubted success in decarbonising the electricity and power industry in the UK comes from the government leading on policy and creating a path for organisations like Vattenfall to come in and invest at scale.

These continuous delays on the challenge of heat have real world impacts.  In the last three years since we set up our operation in the UK, we have engaged positively in a market which is poised to invest heavily in decarbonising heat.  The solutions exist.  The market is ready to buy.  The suppliers are ready. But the absence of a clear framework and plan from government is increasingly the barrier to rolling out low carbon heat at scale. 

Our concern now is that this delay signals a divergence in policy and an extension of the life of gas-based generation.  Vattenfall and other major investors in the energy transition watch, again, in hope of positive and clear policy in the near future.