Businesses in the West welcome the long-awaited Net Zero Strategy

With the UK hosting the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow next month, the release of the UK government’s Net Zero Strategy yesterday was highly anticipated by businesses.

The strategy has been broadly welcomed by business - including British Chambers of Commerce - as it sets out the key actions required to deliver on a net zero economy.

The wide-ranging strategy includes spending commitments amounting to £26bn. These are expected to unlock £90bn of private sector investments through to 2030, secure 440,000 jobs and ensure that the UK is on track to deliver its net zero target.

Policy plans include support for hydrogen, nuclear, carbon capture and storage, electric vehicle infrastructure, heat pump installations, sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and natural carbon sinks among many others.

Whilst Business West welcomes the strategy there are some missed opportunities. Energy efficiency remains underfunded. The detail around reviving the nuclear pipeline, tackling industrial emissions, and building a hydrogen industry is light. There is little in the strategy to address the worsening net zero skills shortage. How to engage the public and behaviour change is missing. And there is little said about planning reforms, local government, or overarching governance reforms. The various funding pledges look great on paper (£26bn in total) but are not the post-covid Rooseveltian stimulus package that many had hoped for. Taking the boiler upgrade scheme as an example, the amount offered, £5k for air source heat pumps and £6k for ground source heat pumps is significantly less generous than the current Renewable Heat Incentive, although it does have the advantage of being paid upfront. Crucially, it is not clear how much carbon saving each measure is expected to deliver.

But there is much to be optimistic about. A net zero emission economy is the defining political, economic and environmental paradigm of our time. The pace at which this has been adopted following the Paris Summit in 2015 is staggering, with two thirds of the global economy including the US, China and EU all having net zero targets in place. 

The UK was the first major world economy to set a legally binding net-zero emissions target, and now with this strategy, it now has laid out the key actions required over the coming decades.

For the West there are opportunities ahead. Could this strategy bring forward the cycle infrastructure employers are calling for in the West of England through CyclingWorks Bristol? Could this provide the support needed for businesses to make the swich to electric vehicles? Will this further the region’s fusion ambitions? Could this see vast areas in the South West as identified by Vana turned over for tree planting?

What is very clear is that there is much to do. In 2019, the Centre for Sustainable Energy estimated that in 2019 there were fewer than 200 heat pumps in Bristol alone, and to reach net zero by 2050, 27,000 would need be installed in the city in the next 9 years.