As we transition to a smarter, more flexible energy system – and start to embrace major challenges such as decarbonising heat – businesses will face big changes as well as opportunities. We ask Caroline Bragg from the ADE to share her thoughts on what needs to happen to support businesses, and the UK, on the journey to successfully meeting the UK’s 2050 net zero target.
The chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to deliver his Budget next week, on Wednesday 3 March and there are plenty of predictions circulating about what we can expect. Of course, supporting a recovery in the economy will be the main priority. So the focus is likely to be on growth, via fuelling investment. Winding down pandemic support schemes is also expected, as the country starts to move out of our third lockdown.
Hydrogen is a major part of the government’s net zero strategy, appearing as second billing in the Prime Minister’s recently-released Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.
According to Boris Johnson, in his foreword to the plan, we could soon be cooking our breakfast on hydrogen while breathing in cleaner air, thanks to trucks, trains, ships and planes running on hydrogen rather than fossil fuels.
Hydrogen is also being hailed as the answer to decarbonising the UK’s heating.
But, of course, this is all hypothetical. Because as yet, there is no mainstream, affordable or low-carbon-manufactured source of hydrogen commercially available.
There’s so much talk about net zero and the need for businesses to plan their route to lower-emission operations.
But for many organisations, making sense of all the recent government announcements – and what these actually mean to them – is still very unclear.
That’s perhaps why hundreds joined our net zero webinar, hosted by The Energyst, on Thursday 10 December, where our panel cut through the confusion to set out what we do know, what we are waiting for – and what action businesses can take now.
James Diggle, Head of Energy and Climate Change at the CBI, and CSR expert Olly Craughan from DPD joined npower Business Solution’s Head of Flexibility Services Ben Spry to look at the detail that matters.