UK govt agrees on low-carbon support by 2020

Nov 23, 2012 - The UK government has reached a deal on energy policy ahead of introducing the Energy Bill next week, including an agreement on the level of market support for low carbon electricity investment up to 2020, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey announced today.

Low-carbon electricity spending under the Levy Control Framework will increase to GBP 7.6 billion (USD 12.1bn/EUR 9.4bn) in real terms in 2020/21, which equates to about GBP 9.8 billion in nominal 2020 prices, from GBP 2.35 billion in 2012/13. The envisaged support will help diversify the UK's energy mix to avoid excessive dependency on gas imports by boosting the share of renewable electricity to around 30% by 2020 from 11% currently, the government says. The investment will also back new nuclear power and carbon capture and storage commercialisation, according to the announcement.

The government has also delayed setting a decarbonisation target range for 2030 until 2016.

Trade body RenewableUK welcomed the announcement. "The news that there is rock solid support across Government for renewable energy, and clear evidence that Treasury and the Department of Energy and Climate Change are in step, provide the industry with exactly the kind of assurances we've been calling for," the organisation's chief executive Maria McCaffery said.

Conservation charity WWF-UK, however, criticised the lack of a decarbonisation target in the bill, saying that this was "a failure of leadership."

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.594/EUR 1.236)

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