UK's Journey to Net Zero

How the cost of Net Zero could penalise rural communities. Dr Alan Jones, PhD. CEng, FIET.   1 Summary   In a previous paper, dated August 2020, which presented the background to Net Zero, mention was made of the hurried nature at which Net Zero legislation was enacted together with the absence of any cost-benefit analysis before being passed by Parliament in July 2019.   The paper did, however, go on to say HM Treasury planned to issue a retrospective report on the cost of Net Zero in Autumn 2020, and that has now happened.     However, when HM Treasury published their report [i]  on the 17 December 2020 it turned out not to be the expected final report, but instead an interim report laying out the background and remit, and inviting stakeholder feedback during January 2021.    December 2020 also saw other Net Zero activity from a range of actors: the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published the Sixth Climate Budget [ii]  on...

  A background to Net Zero - why and how it arose, and what it means. Dr Alan Jones, PhD. CEng. FIET.   Introduction Net zero has now been around for just over 12-months and yet in this short time this new Government target – its latest response to climate change – is being articulated within an increasing number of arenas and by an ever growing list of actors in the fields of energy, finance, environment, housing, transport, generation, distribution, and so on. Campaign groups along with with Government signalling has raised awareness of this subject and net zero is now a term used freely and sometimes with gay abandon as the answer to why some action is required, indeed essential, that might otherwise not have been needed.   On the energy side, for example, net zero is helping focus National Grid Energy System Operator’s forward thinking, as it is Ofgem’s.  This in turn influences the UK Transmission and Distribution companies plans over the next 30 years and ...