LowCVP gives evidence to ECC inquiry into renewable heat and transport targets
Wed 08 June 2016
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The LowCVP's Policy & Ops Director, Jonathan Murray, gave oral evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Committee's inquiry on 7 June. The cross-party MPs group is exploring the main challenges with, and potential solutions to, meeting the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets for heat and transport.
The 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive sets a target for the UK to achieve 15% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. The Government has proposed to achieve this across the electricity, heat and transport sectors by ensuring that 30% of electricity, 12% of heat and 10% of transport demand are met by renewable sources. Progress in the heat and transport sectors will be crucial to meeting the UK’s own long-term decarbonisation targets as set out in the Climate Change Act.
While progress towards the share of renewable electricity is on track, concerns have been raised regarding progress in renewable heat and transport, and the Committee on Climate Change has warned that the Government’s ambitions may no longer be achievable. According to the Committee's terms of reference about the inquiry, which are published on the website, some research has suggested that renewable transport fuels may cause more carbon emissions than they save.
The LowCVP's written submission to the Commitee is downloadable here and the oral evidence provided here.
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