Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denied watering down plans to deliver 100% clean power by 2030, despite setting out a revised blueprint to deliver “at least 95%” clean energy in that timeframe.
The milestones in his Plan for Change speech, delivered in Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire on Thursday, included a revised goal: “Securing home-grown energy, protecting billpayers, and putting us on track to at least 95% clean power by 2030, while accelerating the UK to net zero.”
Labour previously said in its manifesto Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower that: “By 2030, the UK will be the first major country in the world to run on 100% clean and cheap power, with lower bills for all.”
Shadow Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, said on social media platform X in reference to the change in the language of the clean power target that Starmer had “watered it down to 95%” because of the challenges he faces in reducing customer energy bills.
‘Achievable’
The National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) assessment in November was that the government’s plan to achieve clean power by 2030 was “achievable”.
However, in NESO’s clean power pathways, the operator highlighted that gas-fired generation would be used as a “strategic reserve” at a reduced rate of up to 5%.
Delivering his speech, Starmer said the Labour party would “reform government and rebuild Britain”.
According to reports, he denied that the revised target represented a less ambitious approach to the government’s clean power plans.
“The mission hasn’t changed from the day I launched it nearly two years ago,” he said. “There is always going to be a mix but that is the pledge we made two years ago.”
Starmer said instead that the Labour government will be doubling down on its clean power plans, which he expressed have “always been central to our mission”.
In his speech, Starmer said that naysayers would not put a stop to plans to deliver 150 infrastructure projects across the country.
“This government will not accept this nonsense anymore,” Starmer said. “We will streamline the approval process in the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill and driving through reform I can announce another new target.”
That milestone would “triple the number of decisions on national infrastructure compared with the last parliament”, Starmer said.
“And just as importantly will send a very clear message to the nimbys, the regulators, the blockers, the bureaucrats, the alliance of naysayers, the people who say, ‘no, Britain can’t do this’,” Starmer said in his speech.
“Well, we say to them, you no longer have the upper hand, Britain says yes. Because whether you like it or not, we are building a future for working people, making our country strong with stability, investment and reform.”
Hurdles
© Supplied by Energy InstituteThe speech was delivered on the same day that the Energy Institute’s latest barometer of the energy sector showed that just 4% of energy professionals have confidence that the UK will meet net zero targets by 2050.
Just 15% of the respondents, the Energy Institute said, believe that the carbon emissions reduction goal will be achieved by 2035.
The institute said that energy sector professionals “are clear that the Government’s central goal of 100% clean power by 2030 faces considerable hurdles”.
While optimism ran high around reaching emissions reduction goals shortly after the net zero policy shift in 2019, the institute said “expectations declined” in the past two years.
