Donald Trump's Executive Orders Put UK In "Stronger Position" To Attract Green Investment
President Donald Trump swiftly announced a raft of executive orders following his inauguration in January, many affecting climate and environment policy. (Alamy)
5 min read
The chair of the Energy Committee has told PoliticsHome the recent slew of executive orders on climate change and green energy by US President Donald Trump provides the UK with a "huge opportunity" to attract more green investment.
Trump's executive orders include removing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, pledges on "doubling down on oil and gas", and reversing former president Joe Biden's pledges to go faster on electric vehicles.
"We will drill, baby, drill," said Trump in his inauguration address in January.
"America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have – the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth – and we are going to use it. We'll use it."
Trump's approach to the environment and green energy is a marked shift from Biden's, whose Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) saw huge sums of government money invested in green technology and industry, resulting in a surge of investment to the US in green energy.
Labour MP Bill Esterson, who is also chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee in Parliament, told PoliticsHome Trump's departure from Biden's approach provided economic opportunities for the UK.
"Given the uncertainty created in the United States by President Trump's executive orders, it is likely that the UK will be in an even stronger place to attract investment and achieve the government's mission of being a clean power, of delivering clean power by 2030, and pushing on towards net zero in 2050," said Esterson.
"We will know more at the spending review, with the expected confirmation of the final investment decision on Sizewell C alongside the results of the small modular reactor competition [showing] just how far and how fast the government is progressing."
He added: "There is a huge opportunity, even as there are enormous challenges ahead of us.
"But right now, the UK is in a very strong position to lead the way in delivering economic benefits, national security benefits and climate benefits – and the actions of President Trump may well help the UK government in its endeavours."
Energy minister Michael Shanks told PoliticsHome that while the government would seek "to persuade President Trump about the course that the rest of the world is taking" on climate change, he said "the UK is not going to sit on the sidelines of this anymore" when it comes to the environment.
"This is an unstoppable transition, and Britain can be at the forefront of that and bring all the economic potential that comes from that, and also really drive forward the climate obligations that we have as a world," said Shanks.
He added: "I think we will seek to persuade the American government, as will all governments, that the whole nature of this solution requires the whole world to find some consensus on this, and that's never been easy in all of the agreements we've had in the past decades. It's always going to be challenging.
"We want to bring everybody with us on this, but at the same time, the UK is going to lead the way in the clean power mission, in new technologies and in climate leadership, and we're going to continue to play that role."
Adam Bell, a former government energy adviser and director of policy at energy consultancy Stonehaven, told PoliticsHome Trump's attitude on green energy and climate change was "great for the UK".
"The elimination of the Inflation Reduction Act means a lot of the capital that would have flowed across the Atlantic, and especially a lot of the components for the offshore wind, will instead flow to other markets – and especially the UK." said Bell.
For the planet it's terrible, but certainly for the UK in the short run, it does mean that delivering 2030 will almost certainly be cheaper
"This means that we will have access to a greater abundance of capitalised interest in the environmental space, as well as more components and access than we otherwise would have had... For the planet it's terrible, but certainly for the UK in the short run, it does mean that delivering 2030 will almost certainly be cheaper than [it] otherwise [would] be."
On Trump's decision to pull the UK from the Paris Climate Accords, Bell said it provided the UK with leadership opportunities.
"The absence of America from World forums on climate is once again bad for the planet, but it certainly means that – especially if we can deliver 2030, especially if we can demonstrate that it's possible to combine growth with decarbonisation – gives us a significant, significant opportunity to have a much more impactful presence at [places like] COP than we've had for the last decade or so."
Adam Berman, director of policy and advocacy at Energy UK, also told PoliticsHome Trump's return to the White House and executive orders may provide the UK with opportunities.
"There [are] two buckets of technologies... that we could notionally benefit from, in terms of kind of trying to take some of that investment to the UK," said Berman.
"The first is established renewables - by which I really mean wind and solar – but we've got a pretty good mechanism already to incentivise them...
"I think probably more important is the second bucket, which is the... newer technologies, particularly around areas like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage.
"There, what we absolutely will see is, companies that really want to build those new facilities now – seeing that the US may not be a place, particularly to trial first-of-a-kind technologies, and looking for other jurisdictions.
"In advance of the comprehensive spending review, that's definitely something for the UK to consider."
Berman also told PoliticsHome he believed it provided "a really big opportunity" for the UK with respect to "stepping up in terms of climate leadership".
"In fairness to [Energy Secretary] Ed Milliband, I think the industry sees someone who has been really keen to both trumpet the UK successes but also highlight where our challenges are, and try and work with others on them," said Berman.
"We're not going to be able to step into the shoes completely of the US, but I think with the UK much more active in COP, it will be seen as a real sign that large swathes of the OECD are very much on the front foot when it comes to climate beyond that."
Additional reporting by Zoe Crowther.
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