By Nicholas Earl
Energy secretary Claire Coutinho has defended the government’s record on investing in renewables and low carbon technology amid challenges from rival markets – including the US and Europe.
In a major speech at the trade association Energy UK’s conference yesterday, the freshly appointed frontbencher insisted that investment was her “top priority,” and that her aim was to “further accelerate investment in green industries.”
However, while Coutinho was “conscious” of the potential challenges posed by the vast subsidies on offer in the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s loosening of state aid rules, she wanted her department to “prioritise investment decisions.”
She supported the government’s approach of picking winning technologies, such as the £20bn commitment to boost carbon capture and storage.
Coutinho said that “no other technology offers Britain bigger or more exciting potential” for the UK than carbon capture.
“We will only succeed in the energy transition if we double down on sectors with the greatest opportunities. The greatest opportunities to decarbonise,” she said.
The government is targeting 20m-30m tonnes of carbon capture per year by the end of the decade, and considers the process fundamental to its net zero ambitions.
Multiple projects have been fast-tracked through the government’s ‘track one’ and ‘track two’ processes already – including the vast Acorn network in Scotland and the Humber-based Viking development – with four clusters confirmed in British waters.
Momentum from the state subsidies would be supported by the government’s Energy Bill, which she believed could “turbocharge British technology” and unlock £100bn of private investment.
Coutinho’s speech follows last year’s triggering of the US Inflation Reduction Act – outlining $370bn of green subsidies – which risks luring green firms away from the UK, and the EU’s push to rival President Biden’s legislation with a Green Industrial Plan which will look to nurture new start-ups across the continent.
Companies have criticised Downing Street’s recent watering down of green pledges – such as slowing down the shift from fossil fuel powered cars and boilers to electric vehicles and heat pumps – with Ford warning the government had increased uncertainty in the country’s investment climate.
However, Coutinho believed an overly-radical approach risked alienating households and toxifying the cause of tackling climate change – when she wanted people to feel “unadulterated optimism.”
TheClimate Change Committee warned last week the recent softening of climate goals will “increase longer-term risks” that the UK will miss its net zero goals and are “likely to increase both energy bills and motoring costs.”
But the minister cited calculations from the advisory group which had determined “no material difference” in the UK’s progress to cut emissions by 2030 since their report in the summer.
She said: “The truth is we can’t impose unaffordable extra costs on households. Particularly at a time when millions of families are struggling with the cost of living. Instead we need to bring consumers with us on the net zero journey.
