A coalition of local leaders in the UK, including Siemens and EDF are lobbying Conservative Chancellor Rishi Sunak to pledge £5bn toward renewable energy and energy efficiency going into the future.
Photo: jaykhuang / Creative Commons Licence: CC BY
Convened through the UK100, studies supported by the coalition indicate that allowing for private sector investment could net a return of £100bn, far exceeding the promises made in the party’s manifesto in last year’s election.
This £100bn would include £40bn for energy efficiency improvement and technologies. However, the research conducted stipulates an initial investment of roughly £5bn is required to kickstart this green recovery plan.
This package could also create over 300,000 jobs, helping the country rebuild from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the lobbyists said.
Another separate study for UK100 launched as part of a resilient recovery taskforce shows that 3.1 million jobs will need access to skills and training from government and industry as part of a green recovery.
The UK100 is a network of over 100 mayors, businesses and local leaders from across the country.
UK100 director Polly Billington said: “If ministers are to meet their manifesto promise on energy efficiency in our homes, which are some of the leakiest in Europe, they need to kickstart a renewable revolution. This would help hard-pressed consumers save on their fuel bills, support hundreds of thousands of jobs and protect the environment.
“£5bn now would unlock £100bn to rescue the UK economy and deliver on the Prime Minister’s ambitions of levelling up and meeting Net-Zero.
She added: “The Chancellor’s statement, while welcome, should have had far more front-loaded investment.”
Siemens UK chief executive Carl Ennis said: “There is an urgent need to scale up local, sustainable, energy if the UK is to have any chance of meeting Net Zero by 2050.
“This requires a collective national effort with government, business and the public all playing our part. Local energy should be at the heart of the National Infrastructure Strategy creating a more consistent policy landscape that will give investors the confidence to invest earlier.”
UK100 further partnered with Siemens UK on a study that argues that a more “balanced energy system” is required with the right mix of local decentralised energy alongside large-scale generation.
Under these new proposals, both members of the public and energy consumers will become generators themselves.
Homes currently account for 18% of the UK’s emissions, largely from gas use for heating and cooking. This net-zero target will require most of the homes in the UK to be retrofitted. Other ways of accomplishing the study’s goals include onshore solar and wind power, biomass, electric vehicle charging and smart grids.
In response, the UK100 is calling for the creation of a net-zero development bank that would bring together all government financing for the transition to neutral emissions and kickstart local energy schemes which are at too early a stage to be attractive to private investors.
This bank would also replace lost funding from the EU as a result of Brexit, within a more stable regulatory regime, a new study argues.
The report is the outcome of an 18-month programme of five workshops held across England, in Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Leicester and Manchester, bringing together 327 experts from local authorities business, academia, NGOs and local economic partnerships to discuss green financing.
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