Energy UK response to CCC report

Responding to the Committee on Climate Change’s 2018 Progress Report, Energy UK’s chief executive Lawrence Slade, said:

“Since the passing of the Climate Change Act a decade ago, the energy sector has shown just how much can be achieved when there are strong commitments and policies from government in place. If government sets the right framework, it allows industry and the market to innovate and deliver. As the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says, not only has this helped the energy sector to rapidly reduce emissions through a remarkable increase in renewable generation but to do so at a dramatically falling cost to customers.  

“Conversely a lack of certainty and short-sighted decisions, like cutting energy efficiency programmes or blocking the route to market for the cheapest technologies such as onshore wind, just increases the eventual costs of what is an unavoidable responsibility. Some of these decisions are false economies and fail to recognise that embracing the opportunities presented by the drive to decarbonise is a boost, not a burden, to economic growth.    

“As the CCC has highlighted, it’s essential that other sectors like heating and transport follow the power industry’s lead in reducing emissions  - and that we keep up the pace in our own sector. We fully support the CCC’s call for the Government to be bold and to follow up on its stated ambitions without delay. We stand ready to work with them and other sectors to deliver essential transformation which will benefit consumers, the environment and the UK economy.”