The Labour government could usher in a new era of climate action, with Sir Keir Starmer having promised to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
After being criticised for watering down its Green Prosperity Plan investment pledge from £28bn a year to under £15bn, Labour will come under intense pressure to deliver on its manifesto commitments. One of which is the formation of the publicly-owned Great British Energy, which will be headquartered in Scotland and capitalised with £8.3bn to deliver clean power by co-investing in leading technologies, support capital-intensive projects, and deploy local energy production.
The company won’t supply electricity to homes, but Labour said it will cut average households bills by £300 a year, and that its investment plans will create 650,000 jobs by 2030, doubling onshore wind, tripling solar power and quadrupling offshore wind.
For every £1 of public investment, a National Wealth Fund will be required to crowd-in a further £3 of private sector investment for low-carbon projects. Unlike a Norway-style sovereign wealth fund, it will only have £7.3bn to invest over the next parliament, with £1.8bn directed at ports, £1.5bn for gigafactories, £2.5bn to clean steel, £1bn for carbon capture and £500m to green hydrogen.
A new Energy Independence Act will set out the framework for Labour’s energy and climate policies, which include no new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, an end to new coal licences, a ban on fracking, and closing loopholes in the windfall tax on fossil fuel firms.
The party has said it will also deploy more distributed energy production capacity through a Local Power Plan, while a Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and loans to support investment in insulation, solar panels, batteries and low-carbon heating.
On nature, Labour has committed to creating nine new national river walks and three new national forests.
However, IEMA CEO Sarah Mukherjee MBE said: “We would urge Labour to develop a specific plan to accelerate the uptake of green skills.”
