Queen's Speech December 2019 - Climate change

Climate change

“My government will continue to take steps to meet the world-leading target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It will continue to lead the way in tackling global climate change, hosting the COP26 Summit in 2020.”

• ●  Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face.

• ●  The UK has shown that we can grow our economy whilst reducing emissions. We have decarbonised faster than any other G20 nation since 2000, are a world-leader in offshore wind, and there are now nearly 400,000 jobs in low carbon industries and their supply chains.

• ●  The Government has already led the world by legislating for Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In the last 12 months the Government has:

  • ○  Achieved a record 53 per cent share of electricity generation from low carbon sources, supported by policies including the Contracts for Difference scheme.

  • ○  Launched the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, to deliver increased offshore wind capacity, boost the UK economy and continue to reduce costs.

  • ○  Announced an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund with £315m of government funding to help business decarbonise and reduce their energy bills.

  • ○  Published our Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Action Plan, in line with our ambition of having the option to deploy CCUS at scale during the 2030s.

  • ○  Launched the £400m Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund to drive uptake of electric vehicles.

  • ○  Published our Green Finance Strategy, Resources and Waste Strategy and Clean Air Strategy to leave our natural environment in a better state than we found it and catalyse investment in green infrastructure, technologies and services.

  • ○  Announced that the UK will double its international climate finance to £11.6 billion in the period 2021 to 2025.

• ●  We will build on our progress with an ambitious programme of policy and investment, with our first Budget prioritising the environment. This will help

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deliver the green infrastructure needed to improve lives and achieve Net Zero, including by investing in carbon capture, offshore wind, nuclear energy, and electric vehicle infrastructure so that individuals are always within 30 miles of a chargepoint. We will make sure we help lower energy bills investing in the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals. And away from home, we will use our £1 billion Ayrton Fund to develop affordable clean energy for developing countries.

• ●  The government will continue to use our position as a global leader in this area by hosting the UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in 2020 (COP26). We will ask our partners to match the UK’s ambition.

• ●  With a focus on nature based solutions at our upcoming COP summit, at home we will be substantially increasing our tree-planting commitment and creating a £640 million new Nature for Climate fund.

• ●  Our natural environment is one of our greatest assets, and can play a crucial role in the fight against climate change. This government will:

  ○ introduce a landmark Environment Bill – the first one in twenty years – that will create an ambitious environmental governance framework for post Brexit, as well as banning the export of plastic waste to non-OECD countries;

  ○ establish a new £500 million Blue Planet Fund to help protect our oceans from plastic pollution, warming sea temperatures and overfishing;

  ○ lead diplomatic efforts to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030; and,

  ○ in our trade negotiations, never compromise on our high environmental protection

• ●  We will also ensure that we are protecting our citizens by investing £4 billion in flood defences and lowering energy bills by investing £9.2 billion in the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals.

• ●  We will increase our ambition on offshore wind to 40GW by 2030, and enable new floating turbines.

• ●  We will support decarbonisation of industry and power by investing £800 million to build the first fully deployed carbon capture storage cluster by the mid-2020s; and £500 million to help energy-intensive industries move to low-carbon techniques.

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Key facts

• ●  The new legally binding target to reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 came into force on 27th June 2019 – the UK was the first major economy to set such a target.

• ●  The UK has led the G7 in cutting emissions and growing national income (per capita) since 1990. Emissions are down 42 per cent since 1990, the lowest level since the 19th century, while at the same time growing our economy by 72 per cent.

● The UK met the first and second (2008-17) carbon budgets; forecast to

overachieve on third (2018-22) substantially.

• ●  £3 billion is being invested in low carbon innovation for the period 2015-2021.

• ●  Between 2010 and 2018, energy bills for the average household fell by 14 per cent in real terms and the UK has quadrupled renewable electricity capacity.

• ●  In 2018 a record high of 53 percent of electricity was generated from low carbon sources, with 33 percent coming from renewable sources:

• ●  We have announced £50 million of innovation funding to drive down the cost of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and have invested over £365 million in CCUS since 2011. We have committed to ending unabated coal power generation in Great Britain by 2025.

• ●  The UK Government has already helped 57 million people around the world to cope with the effects of climate change, provided 26 million people with improved access to clean energy and reduced or avoided 16 million tonnes of CO2.

largest installed offshore wind capacity in the world with 34 per cent of global

we have the

capacity.

● We have committed to introducing a Future Homes Standard by

2025, which will see new build homes future-proofed with low carbon heating

and world leading standards of energy efficiency by 2025.

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● The UK will up its International Climate Finance support to at least £11.6 billion over the next five years, between 2021-22 and 2025-26. This represents a doubling of the UK’s commitment to spend at least £5.8 billion on tackling climate change.