The government has set out to go “further and faster” to tackle climate change with a series of wide-ranging proposals published today (15 October).
The proposals were made in response to the recommendations made by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) earlier this year, namely that net-zero policy is embedded across government, policies to reduce emissions are business-friendly and that the public are fully engaged with the policy.
It also called for the UK to be a world-leader in tackling climate change.
Meanwhile BEIS has also announced today the UK’s first Transport Decarbonisation Plan which will coordinate the action needed to end transport emissions by 2050.
In a forward to the Leading on Clean Growth report, published as part of the government’s response, energy secretary Andrea Leadsom also hinted that a new cabinet sub-committee on climate change could be introduced in order to strengthen cross-government effort to deliver clean growth.
The response included a consultation which has been published on proposals for energy storage technologies to be processed via the local planning process at all sizes, as opposed to via the national planning regime when above 50MW – a move welcomed by the Renewable Energy Association (REA).
Frank Gordon, head of policy at the REA, said: “We and the industry argued for an increase in the threshold for projects entering the national planning regime and these proposals go even a step further, which is welcome.
“At present most energy storage project planning applications are sized at or around 49.9MW in England where the 50MW threshold is in place, but in Wales where the threshold is much higher, they vary in size usually at around 70MW. This shows the major impact the planning system threshold is having on projects.
“This proposal should significantly reduce the relevant pre-construction costs for larger energy storage projects, unlocking more flexibility in the system and leading to less hardware upgrades and back up capacity for the networks.”
These proposals apply for all energy storage technologies excluding pumped hydro storage projects, due to their significant size.
BEIS has further proposed to “dramatically” improve commercial buildings in the private rented sector, with businesses reportedly set to benefit from £1 billion in energy bill savings by 2030. Within this a consultation on plans to improve the energy performance of rented commercial buildings has been announced.
Furthermore, BEIS claims that the proposal to set minimum energy efficiency standards at EPC band B by 2030 could reduce UK emissions by the equivalent of half a million homes – roughly the size of Birmingham.
The department has scheduled a consultation next year on introducing mandatory in-use energy performance ratings for business buildings.
In a statement, Andrea Leadsom said: “Four months ago the UK took the bold step of becoming the first country in the developed world to put into law our ambition to wipe out the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050, following the CCC’s advice.
“This builds on our long and proud track record of leadership – since 1990 we’ve cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent while growing our economy by more than two-thirds.
“More than half of our electricity currently comes from low carbon sources. And we will keep on going further and faster to ensure our action meets our ambition.”
More details on how the UK will progress towards the 2050 net zero target will be announced in the National Infrastructure Strategy this autumn.