Chancellor Rishi Sunak is being urged to use the Budget to change the financial system to better protect the environment. One group wants him to impose a carbon tax and use the proceeds to protect the poor from high energy bills. A second petition is calling for Bank of England rules to encourage banks not to invest in fossil fuels. Mr Sunak is expected anyway to update the Bank’s mandate to include a greater focus on climate. But campaigners want the new wording to stop the Bank from supporting fossil fuel firms through schemes such as its £20bn corporate bond purchase programme, which involves buying debt issued by firms such as Shell and BP.

BBC 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will deliver his second Budget next week. But, faced with the challenge of supporting the economy as the UK completes its lockdown exit roadmap, will the Budget deliver an appropriate response to the climate and nature emergencies?

Edie 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Electric cars incorporating PV panels on their bodywork or roof have the potential of reaching more than 10,000 km per year of pure solar-powered driving and the modules could have a payback time of only three or four years. This is one of the main preliminary findings of a research program for vehicle-integrated PV that is being run by Bonna Newman, program manager for PV and Mobility, Module Technologies at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). “We have developed a model to quantify all the benefits that are generated by installing solar panels on electric vehicles,” she told pv magazine. “We want to look at how much PV power can really be expected to be generated in different situations.”

PV Magazine 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Leading UK power companies have warned that the energy market is facing “unstability” unless the government provides urgent clarity on UK’s post-Brexit carbon trading plans. Implemented at the end of the 1 January Brexit transition period to replace the European Union, the plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capping the levels that heavy pollutants can produce and forcing the purchase of carbon credits. Designed. Covers annual output. However, the government is still negotiating with the industry on key aspects of the plan that have not yet started trading. This has led UK power producers to sell power without knowing the associated emission costs. Typically, electricity producers sell electricity up to two years ago, and Brexit UK companies before pricing forward contracts related to the cost of the EU plan.

FT 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Taxing carbon dioxide emissions would be popular with voters, polling suggests, as the government moots ways to put a price on carbon that could help tackle the climate crisis and fund a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Carbon taxes could be levied on energy suppliers, transport including flying, food, imports and other high-carbon goods and services. At present, the UK levies implicit taxes on carbon, for instance through duties on petrol and diesel, and some heavy industries pay an effective price on carbon. But there are no taxes for consumers that are explicitly geared to the carbon emissions created by the goods and services that they buy.

Guardian 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Half of the UK’s electricity generation could be provided by renewables by the end of next year, provided the government introduces the right policy environment, according to a major new report from the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA). The trade body made the claim yesterday, as it published a ‘green recovery roadmap’ that sets out its vision for how the UK can meet its net zero emissions target while providing thousands of new jobs in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The report, titled Strategy for Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies, calculates that UK electricity generation could be powered entirely by renewables by 2032, and that half of all electricity generation could be provided by renewables by the end of 2022. A separate recent analysis by think tank Ember suggested renewables provided 42 per cent of the power mix last year, outstripping fossil fuels for the first time. Renewables and nuclear combined have consistently delivered more than half the UK’s power in recent years, but renewables advocates maintain that the sector could top 50 per cent in short order if the government moves to beef up energy efficiency programmes and remove a number of barriers to renewables deployment, such as VAT on domestic clean technologies and on-going planning delays.

Business Green 24th Feb 2021 read more »

Boris Johnson must be “muscular” in reshaping the economy to bring about a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis, former prime minister David Cameron has said, calling for an active policy of industrial intervention. Cameron, who as prime minister from 2010 to 2016 oversaw the UK’s recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, said the lessons from that recession were clear. “My advice would be, from what I learnt, is that as well as the framework [of climate and economic policy], you have to roll up your sleeves and be quite muscular in your interventionism,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “The government has got a strong framework for green energy policy and in green investment, much of which we put in place, but it needs to combine that with active assistance and helping with key green investments that can make a difference,” he said. “There’s every opportunity for this recovery to be a green recovery.”

Guardian 24th Feb 2021 read more »

When the UK finalized a trade and security agreement with the European Commission on 24 December last year, it left with a set of arrangements governing future energy cooperation. Here, Dr David Lowry looks at the background and reveals one extraordinary condition that could terminate the nuclear component of the deal. An expert briefing by the House of Commons library in the UK Parliament set the context. “On energy, although [EU] Member States remain ultimately responsible for security of energy supply to citizens, and for deciding their energy mix, the UK and EU energy sectors remain integrated through trade, legislation and interconnection of energy supply. Consequently, the future relationship between the UK and EU has the potential to affect the UK’s civil nuclear industry, including nuclear power and research, and the trade of electricity and gas through interconnectors. Additional areas that may be affected include the island of Ireland’s energy market, energy efficiency regulations, and general energy infrastructure through wider changes to trade and the movement of people.” One of the complexities was the future arrangements for nuclear safeguards, which was addressed by a bilateral deal between the UK and European Commission, agreed in August 2018. Alongside the 1200-page Brexit trade and security agreement the UK and EU agreed a self-standing 18-page accord on nuclear co-operation, which is strong on outlining the importance of nuclear safeguards, peaceful uses of nuclear materials and regulatory oversight. The new nuclear agreement between the UK and EU, allows the militarization of the entire 140,000 kilogramme stockpile of plutonium in store at Sellafield. For context, a nuclear warhead may be made with 5 kilogrammes.

Energy Transition 22nd Feb 2021 read more »

British Gas has placed what it claims is the largest order of electric vehicles (EVs) by a UK business to date, after bringing its target for full fleet electrification forward to 2025.

Edie 22nd Feb 2021 read more »

Electric vehicle developer Arrival is teaming up with one of Britain’s largest transport operators, First Bus, to begin trialling zero emission buses on UK roads later this year, the two firms announced yesterday. The new partnership is designed to support First Bus’s commitment last year to purchase no more diesel buses across its UK fleets after 2022, and to operate a fully zero-emission fleet by 2035.

Business Green 23rd Feb 2021 read more »

‘Zero carbon’ aim revealed for Scotland’s canal network. Scotland’s canal network could become carbon neutral with the creation of new hydrogen technology for boat engines and transferring some goods haulage from motorways onto canals, an academic has claimed.

Scotsman 23rd Feb 2021 read more »