The next prime minister must take Britain’s zero-net plans “by the hand of the neck” to boost investor confidence, said an influential House of Lords committee.
The Economic Affairs Committee, which includes members of the former Governor of the Bank of England, Lord King, has warned that the UK is at risk of a “messy transition” away from fossil fuels and has urged the government to establish a detailed plan that includes deadlines for investment decisions. .
The committee said the invasion of Ukraine had provided a “ton of attention” on the vulnerability of energy supplies and said there was a gap between the government’s low-carbon power ambitions and “practical delivery plans.”
In a report, entitled Investing in Energy: Price, Security and the Transition to Net Zero, the committee made a number of recommendations.
These include: an impetus to improve home insulation; develop funding models for new technologies, such as carbon capture and storage; blue and green hydrogen; and re-examine the onshore wind sector.
The partners want energy security targets to be set in conjunction with climate change targets in a National Planning Policy Framework and allow short-term investment in North Sea oil and gas to be returned quickly “to limit the risk of stranded assets “.
The committee also called on the UK Infrastructure Bank to focus on “funding innovative and potentially riskier projects” and for the Treasury to definitively rule out an extraordinary tax on power generators.
Lord Bridges of Headley, chairman of the committee, said: “I hope the next Prime Minister understands the needs of an operational delivery plan for zero net because we have a government that has increased ambition, but now has to unite the points between different policies. to make sure we don’t fall into a gap between ambition and delivery. The next prime minister has to take this issue by the neck and really come up with a plan to deliver. “
The report comes days after the high court ordered the government to outline exactly how its zero-net policies will achieve emissions targets, following a legal challenge from environmental groups.
The committee hopes the government can alleviate concerns among businesses and investors about the performance of large-scale energy infrastructure projects.
Sign up for the Daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
The construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant has been delayed and exceeds the budget of billions of pounds, while questions remain about the financing of its sister plant, Sizewell C, which has been proposed in Suffolk.
Bridges said the UK needed to make sure that in the transition fossil fuels did not depend on minerals used in renewable energy technology, such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles.
He said: “We need to be very focused on making sure that we do not change one form of dependence in terms of oil and gas sources for another source of dependence, which is from countries that own rare earth minerals, supply chains and low-carbon technology, processing and manufacturing, especially China “.
In compiling the report, the committee received evidence from industry-wide experts, including representatives of power plant operator EDF, regulatory supplier Ofgem SSE, consultancy KPMG and Rolls-Royce, which hopes to build a fleet of nuclear power plants.