Government publishes Energy Bill to "power low carbon economic growth, protect consumers and keep the lights on"
Fri 23 November 2012
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The Government has published a new Energy Bill which it says will help promote low carbon economic groth, protect consumers and ensure supply sufficiency. However, a decision about setting carbon emission targets for 2030 has been delayed until 2016, after the next general election.
Announced by Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey, the Bill sets out radical reforms to the design of the electricity market that the Government says will kick-start a renaissance in construction of low-carbon energy infrastructure and in low-carbon manufacturing supply-chains.
Ed Davey said: “The challenge is big. Over the next decade, the investment needed to upgrade our energy infrastructure is almost half of the infrastructure investment needed in the UK. This is far more than is taking place in transport, in telecoms, or in water, and dwarfs the investment that was needed for the Olympics or Crossrail.
Under the Bill, the Government will take powers to set a decarbonisation range for the power sector for 2030, a decision to exercise this power will be taken once the Climate Change Committee has provided advice in 2016 on the fifth Carbon Budget, which covers the corresponding period (2028 – 2033).
The BBC reports that environmentalists have condemned the bill, saying the lack of a 2030 emissions target would make it very hard to meet the UK's legally-enshrined climate change targets.
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