A successful clean energy transition is the key to growth
4 min read
Britain’s clean energy transition has the potential to drive economic growth, lower bills and strengthen efforts to combat climate change. Bill Esterson MP, recently elected chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, calls for the government to lead a bold and consistent approach to clean energy policy
The future of our nation depends on our approach to energy. Growth, national security, new skilled jobs, lower bills and Britain’s reputation for global leadership all now rest on the success of the clean energy transition: the next economic, as well as industrial, revolution.
The invasion of Ukraine and subsequent energy price shocks brought the bitter cost of years of neglect and short-term thinking into stark relief. The vulnerability and shortcomings of our energy market were fully exposed. Major energy companies failed, and domestic and business energy bills skyrocketed, fuelling a ruinous cost of living crisis and a hugely expensive intervention by the government.
The previous government set a target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year but achieved just 72,000. In 2021, the Public Accounts Committee found that the government’s ‘flagship’ Green Homes Grant voucher scheme had underperformed badly, upgrading only about 47,500 homes out of the 600,000 originally envisaged and delivering a small fraction of the expected jobs: it can take four years to train the specialists required to implement key parts of a scheme that was developed to roll out in 12 weeks. The project accounted for just £314m of its original £1.5bn budget and £50m of that was administration costs − more than £1,000 per home upgraded.
In 2012, over 2 million homes were being insulated each year. Now, it’s fewer than 100,000. As a result, three in five homes now have poor EPC ratings, leaving households paying far more than they should to heat their homes. It was a catastrophic error to “cut the green crap”.
These failures and many more can be laid at the door of the constant changes in policy and direction that have characterised the last decade and more of the net-zero journey. The uncertainty generated has been anathema to efforts to attract the investment in technology and skills that are so vital to our nation’s prospects.
Productivity and growth are now inextricably bound to the clean energy transition. Far from being another cost to be met, investing in decarbonisation is a massive opportunity for our economy and for communities up and down the land. 90 per cent of oil and gas workers have transferable skills for low-carbon projects.
As a Labour MP, I am proud of how Britain’s new government has moved early − establishing GB Energy in Aberdeen, the UK’s first publicly owned energy company in 70 years. Supported by £8.3bn in public funding, it has been set up to attract private investment focused on clean energy, job creation and energy independence. New Energy Secretary Ed Miliband lifted the nine-year onshore wind ban and approved three new solar farms, reversing an approach that had left UK households without the energy security that could and should have already been available to them. He achieved a record-breaking renewable energy auction, securing power for 11 million homes.
As chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, I am excited to be leading the committee’s role in scrutinising the approach of the government in trying to combat the greatest challenge of our times. We will be led by stakeholders and their evidence of what’s going to work for business, consumers and across the array of policy areas − housing, environment, transport and education for starters − that must be brought together into a coherent strand to achieve the mission of the department we shadow, and the only one with net-zero actually in its name.
It truly is in everyone’s interest that this government succeeds: cutting bills, creating jobs, enhancing national security and showing badly needed leadership in the fight against global warming.
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