The U.K. Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne announced to Parliament in May that the U.S. Government would accept the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change on the 4th Carbon Budget (2023–2027) in full. The Committee released a proposal to cut carbon emissions by 50% from 1990 levels by 2025, putting the United Kingdom on track to meeting the 2050 target (an 80% reduction in emissions). It will limit emissions over the budget period to 1950 MTCO2e across all sectors of the economy.
The Committee said that renewable energy should make a major contribution to decarbonizing the U.K. economy over the next decades. Conclusions are set out in the Committee’s Renewable Energy Review, released last May. The review highlights a range of renewable energy technologies that could become competitive in the future, including electricity generation from wind and marine, air and ground source heat pumps, and the use of bioenergy for heat generation.
Given sustainability concerns (e.g., the tension between use of land for growth of biofuels, feedstock, and food) a cautious approach to the use of biofuels in surface transport is appropriate, according to the review. Pursuing alternatives to decarbonizing transport is therefore an urgent priority, said the review.
In response to the committee’s caution regarding biofuels, Duncan Eggar, chair of the U.K. Research Councils Cross Council Bioenergy Strategic Coordination Group said, “The Research Councils and others invest in research for the development of just such biofuels from inedible plant parts, non-food crops, and agricultural waste—energy sources that should not compete with food production—as well as considering the implications to ecosystem services of new energy crops…. Given our research around bioenergy, and the fact that the CCC [Committee on Climate Change] will be exploring biofuels in more depth in the coming months, we would welcome the opportunity to develop a shared understanding with the CCC of the role of advanced biofuels in the future energy mix.”
Given significant uncertainties over future developments, the review recommends that the Government should adopt a portfolio approach to technology development. This should cover both renewable generation and other low-carbon technologies.
The review sets out an illustrative scenario where 40% of electricity would come from renewables, 40% from nuclear, 15% from coal and gas with carbon capture and storage, and less than 10% from unabated gas.
To underpin the portfolio approach, the review argues that the Government should make clear commitments to support less mature renewable technologies such as offshore wind and marine generation through the 2020s. These commitments should then be implemented under new electricity market arrangements.
Chair of the Committee on Climate Change, Lord Adair Turner said, “The focus now should be creating a stable investment climate for renewables, making longer term commitments to support less mature technologies, and putting in place incentives to deliver significantly increased investment in renewable power and heat generation required over the next decade.”
Following the release of the Committee’s review, Huhne said, “Today’s announcement will give investors the certainty they need to invest in clean energy. It puts Britain at the leading edge of a new global industrial transformation as well as making good our determination that this will be the greenest government ever.”
Huhne said, “Groundbreaking innovation will play a crucial role in helping Britain to decarbonize its energy supplies by 2027 in the most economical way.”
The U.K. Climate Change Act requires that Government publishes a report setting out proposals and policies for meeting the fourth carbon budget “as soon as is reasonably practicable” after setting the new carbon budget in legislation. The Business Plan of the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change specifies that Government intends to publish the report in October 2011, which will be done alongside the Carbon Plan.
