Government releases their Net Zero Review Final Report

Today (19th October 2021), the government have released their Net Zero Review. This is an analytical report that uses existing data to explore the key issues as the UK decarbonises.

It is set against a backdrop of uncertainty on technologies and costs, as well as changes to the economy over the next thirty years.

It considers the potential exposure of businesses and households to the transition, and highlights factors to be taken into account when designing decarbonisation policy that will allocate costs over this time horizon, so that the policy can help to make the most of opportunities that will arise, and support households as necessary.

Ministers are investing £620m in grants for electric vehicles and street charging points and car makers will be mandated to sell a proportion of clean vehicles each year. An extra £350m is promised to help the automotive supply chain move to electric.

On Tuesday the government also announced a strategy to address emissions from the UK’s 30 million buildings. Homeowners will be able to apply for grants of up to £5,000 to install low-carbon heat pumps to replace gas boilers.

It also offers a further £120m to develop SMRs – small “modular” nuclear reactors that can be factory-built. These might go to the Wylva site in Wales, although that’s not certain.

There will be an extra £625m for tree-planting and peat restoration, too – even though the current schedule is running behind its targets.

The government is committing £140m to two clusters promoting carbon capture and storage to produce hydrogen. The hubs will be the North-West of England and North Wales, with Teeside and Humberside – the government has previously promised £1bn to support CCS.

It looks unlikely that there will be much hydrogen left over to heat people’s homes, which is why the government is postponing any decision about hydrogen boilers until 2026.

Ministers are keen to stress their intention that the so-called net zero transition will be led by business. They say it will create 440,000 jobs and draw in up to 90bn of private investment by 2030.

Read the full Report on gov.uk here.