This week’s Queen’s Speech marked the first point when the government could start backing up its environmental rhetoric with legislation.
However the speech contained no concrete new steps on emissions reduction.
The biggest news for utilities was the resuscitation of the environment bill, which will oversee environmental law post-Brexit.
There was no mention of the Energy White Paper, which was originally due to have been out in the summer.
How much the lack of progress matters is open to debate. Few believe this Queen’s Speech is more than a wishlist inscribed on vellum, given that the government is currently several dozen seats short of a parliamentary majority.
The following day saw BEIS publish its response to the Committee on Climate Change’s latest progress report on the UK’s emissions reduction plan.
This included new plans to boost the minimum energy efficiency of rented commercial buildings to the EPC band B standard by 2030 and making it simpler to secure planning permission for large-scale battery plants.
These are welcome steps, but they stop short of the systemic changes that were being called for on the same day at Energy UK’s annual conference.