The UK Government released its Net Zero Strategy on 19 October 2021- the latest in a series of policy statements committing the UK to net zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2050, a target it signed up to in 2019. The government’s intentions have been outlined earlier in a Ten-Point Plan for a Green Revolution (November 2020), the Treasury’s Interim Report on a Net Zero Review (December 2020), and a report on Decarbonising Transport (July 2021). The UK Government has chosen the path towards economy-wide decarbonisation in the growing recognition, shared with many others, that the potential costs of not acting on climate change significantly outweigh the costs of preventing disruptive, and increasingly frequent, extreme weather events that continue to take lives, destroy assets, and make Planet Earth less habitable.
The UK ranked 17th in the world in 2018, accounting for 1.1 per cent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The UK’s GHG emissions fell by 43 per cent between 1990 and 2019, compared to just 5 per cent for the G7 member nations as a whole, but still remain disproportionately high, given the country’s relatively small size and population. In 2019, households, and the energy supply (electricity, gas), manufacturing and transport sectors were both the biggest users of fossil fuels, accounting for 82 per cent of all use, as well as the biggest GHG emitters. That same year, energy from renewable sources accounted for just 12.5 per cent of total energy use in the UK. Given these figures, it is clear that challenging times lie ahead if the government’s targets are to be met on time.
The UK government has provided us a reasonably clear statement of its proposed actions. The path to decarbonisation entails a shift away from a heavy dependence on fossil fuels to the use of renewable and sustainable, “clean” and “green”, sources of energy (wind, nuclear power, and “green” hydrogen produced exclusively from renewable power) instead. The windswept location of the British Isles enables the UK to generate more electricity from offshore wind, from coastal offshore, inland, and floating windfarms, than any other country while a shortage of sunshine, and often even of daylight, means that solar power has much less to contribute in addition. After a period of declining fortunes in the nuclear industry, there is now a new-found desire to re-invest in nuclear power, in the form of Small and Advanced Modular Reactors, which use novel cooling systems and fuels. Finally, emerging and often yet to be proven hydrogen technologies will be expected to play a greater part in providing us with energy in the future.
Households will become greener, as well as energy-efficient. Gas heaters, which heat 85 per cent of British homes, will be gradually replaced by heat pumps, and no new gas boilers will be installed after 2035. Energy consumption will also be reduced by better insulation of buildings and by the installation of smart meters and smart appliances to monitor and control energy usage.
Road transport will also be transformed. The sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned from 2030 onwards, as the shift to zero-emission electric vehicles (EVs) continues to gather momentum. So-called “Gigafactories” will produce the batteries to power these EVs, while rapid charge points will be provided on major roads and motorways. Members of the public will be expected to dispense with their cars wherever possible and either walk, cycle, or use a “green” public transport system, comprising buses, trams, and trains. “Green” ships and planes will be gradually introduced, as alternative sustainable sources of fuel are developed. It is expected that Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) will eventually be produced commercially from household waste, industrial effluent gases, and carbon captured from the atmosphere.
Net zero implies a balance between the generation of GHGs by human activity and its simultaneous removal, also by humans. Investment in carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) technologies will allow the CO2 that is produced by various industries to be captured and either used in other chemical processes or stored in deep underground shelters, such as in the seabed beneath the North Sea, to keep it away from the atmosphere. Carbon capture clusters of industries, linking industrial carbon production to its capture, will result in designated hubs of commercial activity referred to as “SuperPlaces”. The land itself will contribute to the process of carbon capture, as the restoration of peatlands, woodlands and wetlands, along with other natural habitats, will allow natural carbon sinks to mop up excess CO2.
To drive the green transition and bring about the “Green Industrial Revolution”, investment in research and development, driven by government spending and private green financing, will require effective collaboration between the public and private sectors. The government expects that the creation of high-skilled high-paid jobs in new and innovative industries will restore a competitive edge to British industry, help renew Britain’s industrial heartlands, and bring in new sources of export revenue. While you might quibble over such matters as the costs of the project (either too little or too much), the likely impact of the proposed changes, and the effects of loss of Fuel Duty and Vehicle Excise Duty on government revenues, there seems little reason to question the government’s motives in its desire to achieve Net Zero.
Ashis Banerjee