The government’s net zero strategy will “support up to 440,000 jobs” by 2030, said an economics minister – when he announced an end to the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars.
The new plan, released on Tuesday, aims to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet the government’s goal of net zero by 2050.
It takes less than two weeks for the world’s leaders to come together COP26 Climate summit in Glasgow to discuss how the impact of the Climate change.
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It is the government’s “ambition” not to sell gas boilers by 2035
In a statement on the government’s goals in the House of Commons, Greg Hands told MPs that the strategy is “not just an ecological transition, it is also an important economic change.”
Greenpeace UK chief politician Rebecca Newsom, however, described the government’s strategy as “more of a pick-and-mix than the big meal we need to hit net zero”.
Announcements in the strategy include:
• A goal of fully decarbonising the energy system by 2035
• Path to all heating devices in Houses and low carbon jobs by 2035
• An “ambition” that no new gas boilers will be sold by 2035
• £ 450 million over three years Boiler upgrade scheme To offer households grants for low-carbon heating systems
• £ 60m heat pump ready program
• Secure a decision on a large nuclear power plant by 2024
• 40 GW offshore wind by 2030
• Provision of 5 GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 while halving oil and gas emissions
• Stop selling new gasoline and diesel cars by 2030 with £ 620 million for zero emission vehicles
• Investment of £ 2 billion to make cycling or walking half of urban journeys by 2030
• An additional £ 625 million for tree planting
• £ 120 million for the development of small modular nuclear reactors
A review released by the Treasury Department said “the cost of global inaction far outweighs the cost of acting” to tackle climate change.
The document, released along with the government’s net-zero strategy, says it is impossible to predict how individual household finances will play out over the course of a 30-year transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
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The ministers have set a target of 40 GW offshore wind by 2030
Mr Hands told the House of Commons the strategy will lead the UK government to fully embrace the “green industrial revolution” and help the UK “move up” and “come out on top in the global race for ecology”.
“We need to capitalize on this to ensure that UK industry and workers benefit,” he said.
“I can therefore say that the 2030 strategy will support up to 440,000 jobs in all sectors and in all parts of the UK.”
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Mr Hands continued, “This strategy will harness the power of the private sector and give businesses and industry the security they need to invest and grow in the UK, to turn the UK into new ambitious projects.
“The policies, spending and regulations proposed in the strategy will mobilize up to £ 90 billion in private investment by 2030 to level our former industrial core areas.”
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The government wants half of urban trips to be made by bike or on foot by 2030
The Economy Secretary in charge of the energy letter told MPs that moving to cleaner energy sources would reduce the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels and “cut costs”.
Mr Hands added that the government “will also introduce a mandate for zero-emission vehicles that fulfills our 2030 commitment to end sales of new gasoline and diesel vehicles”.
In strategy documents released Tuesday, the government says it will invest £ 620 million in grants for electric vehicles and street charging stations.
Ministers are also pledging an additional £ 350 million to help move the automotive supply chain to electric vehicles.
Vehicle manufacturers will also be forced to sell a proportion of cleaner cars every year, the plans also show.
And the government is also planning to advise on whether it is appropriate to prevent new buildings from being connected to the gas network in England from 2025.
In the preface to the strategy, Prime Minister Boris Johnson emphasizes that the government’s goals can be achieved without having to forego flying abroad or driving a car.
“In 2050 we will still drive cars, fly planes, and heat our homes, but our cars will glide silently electrically through our cities, our planes will be emission-free so we can fly guilt-free, and our homes will be heated” by approving , reliable electricity from the winds of the North Sea, “he writes.
Mr Johnson’s official spokesman later announced that Downing Street was planning to install heat pumps in line with the net-zero strategy.
“The property is heated with energy-efficient boilers and we want to introduce heat pumps as part of our net-zero ambitions,” said the spokesman.
But referring to the government’s “half-hearted policy” strategy, Ms. Newsom of Greenpeace UK said, “With only eight years left to cut global emissions in half, the government cannot just continue to eat at its ‘ambitious targets’.
“Until the policy and funding gaps are closed, Boris Johnson’s request to other countries to keep their promises at next month’s global climate conference will be easy to ignore.”
Carrot and stick in government strategy – but important details are also missing
Posted by Tom Clarke, science and technology editor
At first glance, today’s net zero strategy could easily be dismissed as far too little, far too late.
The press release boasts of $ 26 billion in government investment since last year.
But according to the Climate Change Committee – who sets the UK’s legally binding climate budgets – it will take around £ 1 trillion in investment between 2030 and 2050 to bring the UK economy to net zero by 2050.
Not exactly an impressive start.
But the government hopes that public money – such as grants for heat pumps or electric cars – will create a market for these products that will encourage companies to sell us these products as cheaply as their fossil-fuel predecessors.
It worked to radically reduce the cost of solar power and offshore wind. But if the public money is made up of carrots, then the strategy also includes sticks.
Proposals for a “market mechanism” to reduce emissions and “carbon pricing” are ways to add costs to carbon that make it unaffordable for businesses to remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
Regulations – for boiler manufacturers and the construction industry, for example – are also powerful levers that the government is apparently ready to pull.
But important details are missing.
Little mention is made of how our diet needs to change in order to reach net zero.
There’s nothing about how to reduce the massive carbon footprint of the tiny minority of people who take the majority of highly polluting flights – save some new money developing green aviation fuel.
There is also no mention of how the government will enable local authorities to manage the net-zero transition.
After all, it is them, not the central government, who have to organize electrified transport plans, make low-carbon planning decisions and drag much of our social housing into the 21st century.
Some things are included in other future strategies, others are being consulted.
But if we are serious about avoiding two degrees warming, let alone the 1.5 that our strategy is trying to prevent, there is very little time for that.
Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the plan is “not working out” and “there is nothing like what we believe is needed”.
He added, “The Chancellor’s fingerprints are all over these documents, and not well. So we’ve waited months for the heat and building strategy – it’s a massive disappointment.”
The Commons Environmental Audit Committee suggests that the heat pump strategy “does not yet meet ambitions”.
“So far there has been little recognition that the effective use of heat pumps requires proper insulation of buildings. Our committee’s findings have shown that insulation costs for many of the 19 million older households with EPC can double the current cost of a heat pump rating of less than a C, “said the committee’s Conservative Chairman Philip Dunne.
Shaun Spiers, Executive Director, Green Alliance, said, “Committing automakers to sell more clean vehicles, helping the heat pump switch and cleaning our energy grid are essential steps to reduce emissions over the next decade.”
He added: “But we need a more ambitious response from the Chancellor on the spending review to turn those promises into jobs, growth and consumer benefit – and if the government is really to level the country we need a lot more investment once the dust clears at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. “
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Energy Secretary Greg Hands said the strategy will help Britain “come out on top in the global race for ecology”.
David Wright, chief engineer at National Grid, said the government needs to set out what fighting climate change means “in practice”.
“We are at a critical juncture where net zero is possible with the technologies and capabilities we have today, and to do that we need to accelerate and intensify efforts to deliver long-term solutions on a large scale . ” he said.
Meanwhile, Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: “It remains to be seen whether the scope and ambition of the strategy is sufficient to attract the private investment necessary to achieve a credible one Path required are net zero by 2050 “.
