Independent Review of Net Zero

Robert Courts Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Chris Skidmore]

Yes. I thank the hon. Member for that point. One of the key recommendations of the report is that we have an office for net zero delivery, which will be able to join all Government Departments to ensure they speak with one voice on the policy commitments that are needed. We have the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. That is fantastic news. I hope it will be given the powers and the mandate to enforce an understanding of what we need to do to achieve net zero across all Departments, because it is certain that Departments are falling behind.

On net zero, I am a realist. I understand that on delivery we must be able to provide public confidence in our ability to achieve some of the ambitions that at the moment are just words on paper. The document is very much about delivery and implementation. I created a structure of six pillars to inform the report. The pillars strengthen the foundations of the pathway towards net zero by 2050, but also refer to some sub-commitments such as decarbonising power supply by 2035 and looking at our electric vehicle mandate by 2030. How will we achieve those targets if we do not get the basic under-the-bonnet issues right, such as infrastructure or grid? Delays in the planning system mean that current targets are way off beam and will not be achieved. Unless we are realistic now about what we need to do to unblock those problems and get, as I called it during the review, the debris off the tracks, we will not be able to reach our commitments in time.

Making decisions now is absolutely critical for this Administration. I include 129 recommendations in the report, but I set out 25 key recommendations for 2025, recognising that this Administration probably has about 300 legislative days left in Parliament until October 2024. That is not to say I would not urge them to take on all 129 recommendations. I understand that the Government will respond to the report by the end of March. Coincidentally, as I was taking forward the work on the review, the Government decided not to challenge the High Court judgment that their net zero strategy was illegal and they have agreed, in secondary legislation, to respond to the High Court judgment and the Committee on Climate Change by 31 March. I hope that their response to the judgment will also form part of the response to the “Mission Zero” report, but the more we can do now, the more we will reduce the costs of the transition overall. The report sets out that if we delay action on net zero by 10 years, we add on 23 base points of GDP to our public debt.

There are huge challenges to achieving net zero. I recognise that, which is why we set out in pillar 1 that securing net zero must be a priority—understanding how we will be able to have in place the materials, supply chains and skills to ensure we can deliver on time. The sooner we act, the sooner we will be able to achieve net zero in an affordable and efficient manner. Other pillars cover powering net zero. I asked each sector how it could achieve net zero in a better way. A third pillar looks at net zero and the economy, and how we could work with those hard-to-abate sectors, whether energy intensives or agriculture, to make sure they can also achieve net zero on track.

[Robert Courts (Witney) (Con)]

I am very grateful indeed for my right hon. Friend’s report. The House will remember my interest: I was the aviation Minister responsible for the jet zero strategy. My right hon. Friend referred to hard-to-decarbonise sectors, which include aviation. He also referred to economic opportunities, and sustainable aviation fuel springs to mind. Would he like to comment on that sector? If sustainable aviation fuel can be provided, if we have the feedstocks and if we provide price stability, there will be an opportunity for the UK economy, as well as an opportunity to decarbonise that crucial yet hard-to-decarbonise sector. Does he think it as important as I do?

[Chris Skidmore]

My hon. Friend’s point is very well made. Our mandate for 10% SAF by 2030 is one of our greatest opportunities to decarbonise in the short term to meet our 2030 nationally determined contribution. If we are to do that, we need to build out the supply chain and take advantage of opportunities to use biogenetic materials and waste materials for SAF, so we need the processing plants in place. My point about what happens under the bonnet is vital to SAF. That is why a circular economy is one of the 10 missions in “Mission Zero”.

I have set out for the Government what I believe needs to happen now in order to unblock the immediate challenges and keep net zero on track, but if as politicians we are to succeed—both in government and as Members of this House—in delivering our long-term net zero goal over a 28-year period, we need to retain the cross-party consensus that it is the right thing to do not just to tackle the climate crisis, but to ensure the future of the British economy and to ensure that the UK plays a leading role in future transition.

I have set out ten 10-year missions, because I believe that tackling energy transition, just like tackling climate change, requires a long-term vision of programmatic certainty, ensuring that businesses and investors have the confidence to invest and to grow, because they know that things will not continue on a start-stop, chop-and-change, project-by-project basis. Germany has a 10-year plan for hydrogen and the US has just set out 10-year visions for its climate technology programmes as part of its Inflation Reduction Act. We, too, need 10-year missions. The ten 10-year missions that our report sets out would start in 2025, after we have got the basics right, and be carried through to 2035.

In writing the report, I took my role as independent chair very seriously. I nearly became an independent MP on the back of the fracking no-confidence vote that happened during the review. I had meetings with every political party, including the SNP and the Liberal Democrats, and several with the Labour party. Whoever wins the next general election and whoever forms the next Administration come 2024, I want them to see the report as a road map not just to delivering net zero, but to delivering it for the benefit of the British people and the British economy.