Broadway Initiative annual reception - CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith’s remarks

Broadway Initiative annual reception - CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith’s remarks

Thank you Gus and good evening everyone, it’s great to be here. And a big thank you to Ed Lockhart who wanted to be here this evening and the whole Broadway Initiative team for bringing us all together tonight in celebration.

It’s brilliant as always to be sharing a stage with Emma Pinchbeck and Ed Miliband – two people who’ve done so much to drive clean energy forward in this country.

It really shows the power of Broadway to bring together business, politicians and climate experts behind a common purpose.

At the CBI we’re proud to be part of that work.

We’re proud to be working with all of you.

Leaders in our energy transition working day in day out, through all challenges, through all political weathers, including the atrocious weather today, for a better future.

And I’m proud of just how far we in the UK have been able to come, together.

The first G7 country to legislate for net zero by 2050 – I know many of your organisations, alongside the CBI played our part in bringing this goal to life.

Emissions since 1990 cut by almost half.

The home of over 40 per cent of all Europe’s offshore wind.

Biodiversity Net Gain rules to protect our nature.

Leading the way with innovation in hydrogen, carbon capture, and green finance.

The UK truly leading on the world stage.

But as Emma and the team at the Climate Change Committee continue to show us – there is no room for complacency.

As their report last week demonstrated, the climate crisis is not some distant threat.

It is here now, reshaping our lives and our planet. Reshaping our economy. In ways we have barely begun to adapt to.

There is still so much to do, and the cost of inaction… is only rising.

That’s why holding firm, staying the course on the energy transition…

…is our contribution to future generations.

And let’s be clear – it is no less an economic one for this generation.

That’s why to me, clean energy should be a goal that stands head and shoulders above politics. Above tribalism and factions. Above arguments over language

This is bigger.

It’s about the future of our economy, our communities, and our country.

But I think we all see the elephant in the room. The political consensus behind our long-term goals to decarbonise our economy, achieve more resilient renewable energy, to continue our international climate leadership is under threat.

The rising calls to row back, to tear up our commitments. To rip up the Climate Change Act…

Well let me be crystal clear: that is undermining investment, undermining opportunity.

– business backs clean energy.

Business is invested in the energy transition.

Business believes in its opportunities.

We’re not interested in politics, we’re interested in results. And where we would like the political debate to focus is not on whether we should be aiming towards net zero, not on undermining our climate governance but on the here  and now – what are the best policies are to achieve a smooth transition – what is the right balance of regulation, incentives and phase out in EVs, heat in homes, our overall sources of energy. What works, and generates the best quality of life not just for this generation but for future ones.

And as our own CBI Economics research shows, clean energy is delivering.

Last year, at a time when UK growth overall almost flatlined, the clean energy industry grew 10 per cent.

It now supports almost a million good, secure jobs – not just in the South East…

…but offshore wind in Scotland and the Humber. Carbon capture in the North Sea and the North West. Nuclear in the South West and East Anglia.

So many places that have been under-invested for too long.

Business is clear: if the destination is a secure, independent and growing economy…

…then clean energy is the road to get there.

But we must be honest about the obstacles and not divisive in our language.

And for business, right now – that’s the cost of energy. Of electricity.

In the long-term we have no doubt delivering clean power will bring prices down and improve security.

But in the short-term you just can’t avoid the fact, our members say again and again…

…the cost of energy for UK business is among the highest in the world.

Two in five firms told us it hit their investment plans last year.

That’s no longer a temporary burden, but a structural threat – to growth.

I know this is on the government’s radar… but unless action is taken, those costs aren’t expected to fall till the mid-2030s.

Business backs clean energy. But in the short-term, we need more to be done to stay the course.

We need a more lasting solution that eases the burden facing both households and  business.

Answering that challenge is about partnership.

Business and government, clean energy leaders in this room, all listening, all acting together.

That’s why we’re here tonight – united by a shared goal, and a shared urgency.

And in this space, partnership already delivers.

It’s the lifeblood of climate action.

Just look at the coordination between the Transition Finance and Net Zero Councils…both of which we are proud to serve on…

…finance and business, moving in lockstep.

Or the Sector Transition Plans the Broadway initiative has led…

…agreeing shared roadmaps for how some of the hardest to abate sectors can decarbonise and grow.

That’s what real delivery looks like: partnership over months and years.

Or take the Business Climate Hub…

…practical support helping SMEs decarbonise, cut costs, and seize new opportunities.

Clean energy is the biggest job creation opportunity in decades – and we must seize it.

As the Secretary of State showcased just yesterday with the new Jobs Plan…

…clean energy is the opportunity of a generation.

It’s not a cost to cut back on, it’s an investment to maximise.

But we need the right frameworks, the right conditions, and the right partnerships to get there.

If we do that – with speed, scale and certainty – we can build a fairer, greener, more resilient economy…

Powered by clean energy.

Led by British business. Led by all of us.

Thank you.