There is a “very real” risk that the UK will not achieve its 2050 net zero emissions goal if the government cannot decide within the next five years on hydrogen’s role in home heating, the National Infrastructure Commission has warned.
The statutory infrastructure advisor kicked off its next National Infrastructure Assessment on Monday (15 November) by publishing a baseline study outlining a series of planned projects.
The report highlighted a “lack of progress” on efforts to decarbonise heating in homes and buildings, meaning the challenges the UK faces in this area are “now urgent”.
It said there are “still major questions” to be answered about heat decarbonisation, even following last month’s publication of the government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy.
These include the level of insulation which will be needed in different homes to efficiently operate heat pumps, whether hydrogen will be available as a source of heat for all homes and what this means for the continuing use of the gas network.
Noting the government’s commitment to a decision on the role of hydrogen for heating by 2026, the report warned that “if this does not happen, the risk of not achieving net zero is very real.”
The commission said one of its projects will identify a “viable pathway” for heat decarbonisation and set out recommendations for policies and funding to deliver net zero heat to all homes and businesses.
As part of its baseline exercise, the NIC is also launching a probe into how electricity generation can be decarbonised by 2035 at low cost while maintaining a flexible and secure supply.
It said reaching net zero will require high levels of investment, both to decarbonise existing infrastructure networks, and to build new ones, such as for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen.
In its upcoming assessment, the commission will assess the actions needed to roll out hydrogen and CCS networks.
The commission also said serious pollution incidents from water and sewerage have plateaued at an “unacceptably high level”, with 32% of water bodies in England lacking good ecological status due to continuous discharges of sewage.
It warned that some older components of infrastructure, like sewers and tunnels built during the 19th century, are at greater risk of failure because they were not constructed to cope with today’s extreme weather, while lack of data on the condition of these assets means deterioration is sometimes not spotted until failures occur.
The assessment, which is designed to provide the basis for the government’s next National Infrastructure Strategy, is due to be published in 2023.
The NIC is conducting a call for evidence on the challenges it has identified for the second assessment, which is due to close on 4 February 2022.