Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has delivered his last budget before the UK is set to leave the EU in March 2019. It was a lengthy speech full of technical detail, but included no references to climate change. In a nod to the environment and repeating near-identical language used in last year’s budget, Hammond said: “We cannot secure our children’s future unless we secure our planet’s future.” His budget “Red Book” adds: “The economy of the future will be low carbon and green, and the UK is well positioned to lead this global transition. The budget sets out how the government is accelerating this shift to a clean economy.” The most notable energy- and climate-related details in Hammond’s budget are likely to have a decidedly mixed impact on the shift to a clean economy, however. They include maintaining current carbon prices – even in the event of a no-deal Brexit – but with a signal that the “total carbon price” in the power sector would be cut in 2021-22 if it “remains high”. Elsewhere, the chancellor extended the nine-year freeze on fuel duty and unveiled a major new £30bn transport deal, with the vast majority of investment ring-fenced for roads.
Carbon Brief 30th Oct 2018 read more »
No-deal Brexit will spell £16-a-tonne carbon tax. The UK will introduce a provisional £16-a-tonne carbon emissions tax in the event of a no-deal Brexit as part of contingency plans to replace the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The level set by the Treasury is broadly in line with the current EU ETS price, which suggests it would be high enough to continue disincentivising the use of coal by power plants and factories and maintaining the UK’s commitment to reducing pollution. The announcement, while contingent on no-deal Brexit, removes one of the big uncertainties for UK power markets at a time of great upheaval in the system.
FT 29th Oct 2018 read more »
Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said: “Three weeks since the world’s leading climate scientists said governments have just 12 years to turn the tide on the catastrophic and irreversible consequences of climate change, the Chancellor has delivered a budget that reads as though he missed the memo.” “We’re currently in the middle of a plastics pollution crisis and yet the Chancellor failed to take even small steps towards stemming the flow of single use plastics by choosing not to introduce a tax on disposable coffee cups and ignoring calls for a tax on brand new plastic,” he added. Friends of the Earth plastic campaigner Julian Kirby said: “It’s astonishing that the Chancellor has gone cold on a ‘latte levy’.”
iNews 29th Oct 2018 read more »
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s Budget announcement also outlined plans to spend £1.6 billion to develop new technologies such as nuclear fusion.
Energy Live News 29th Oct 2018 read more »
The recent BIEE Summer Conference had a morning breakfast session on women and energy (organised by Karoline Rogge of Sussex), and the talks can be listened to here. We speakers were all asked to answer three questions in relation to our experiences: Juliet Davenport talked about the importance of certain types of business management models; Vivien Geard from BEIS talked about public service; I concentrated on what it has been like for me in academia; and Barbara Vest from Energy UK, ably, chaired it. Since then, many people (men and women) have contacted me with their views on gender or diversity in academia, and what more universities or research councils could do.
IGov 29th Oct 2018 read more »