Clean energy – time to speed-up the change

In June this year, after extensive CBI campaigning, the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, reformed legislation of the UK’s Climate Change Act to raise emissions reduction targets from 80% to net-zero by 2050. The targets are ambitious but vital, and there’s a lot of work to be done. It means that business and government must work together to avoid the most damaging effects of climate breakdown.

Meeting a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 will require far-reaching changes beyond those already underway in energy, industry, buildings and transport. Achieving a net-zero target will require a huge expansion of renewables, mass uptake of electric cars, smarter buildings using low-carbon sources of heating and cooling and using nature and technology to capture carbon. All this and much more will shape the future of the UK.

As Colin Matthews of EDF said in a recent CBI Ideas Forum article, “transitioning to a low carbon economy requ