Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH AUGUST 2019 | 7 News says Lawrence Slade, chief executive of EnergyUK. The Committee on Climate Change's most recent progress report showed the govern- ment is not even on track to meet its existing fourth and • • h carbon budgets for 2022 to 2032. And these are based on the target of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions on 1990 levels by 2050, which is a far less stretching target than net zero. The white paper that never was The big un• nished piece of energy policy business le• over from the last government is the white paper that was never published. Last autumn, Greg Clark promised the energy white paper this summer, but it still hadn't appeared by the time his tenure at BEIS ran out. He leaked the white paper's proposed contents in a brie• ng to industry executives last Monday on his second-to-last night as secretary of state. "We know the white paper was there, we know it was • nished and we pretty much know what was in it," says Slade. The government should ensure that the delay in the publication of the white paper turns out to be a worthwhile exercise, he says: "If the government is going to delay publication of the white paper, let's all push for them to make sure that when it comes out it answers as many questions as pos- sible and has a real sense of ambition and leadership that can really get people excited andonside. "Let's get the white paper out so we are on track." Many of the leaked proposals in the white paper have already appeared in the rash of consultations published last week by BEIS (see news, p14). Nevertheless, the publication of the white paper is still important because it will provide a "narrative", says Slade. Whitehead expresses concern that the change of guard at BEIS will be a recipe for further procrastination. "My worry is that you will end up undoing a lot of potential progress at a time when we can't a™ ord to wait," he says. Whitehead urges the new BEIS team not to bury these consultations, which were instigated in their predecessors' dying days in a "minesha• ". "We want to carry on so we can see what their position is on those things and move the debate forward," he says. And while adopting the headline 2050 net zero emissions target is welcome, it is not suš cient, says Yeo: "You will get a lot of lip service "It's very hard when you have campaigned against it locally to suddenly do a U-turn. It's the cheapest form of energy production, so clearly this is a big setback." Whitehead also worries that Leadsom's broader attachment to free market principles will handicap the drive to tackle climate change. This concern • nds fuel in the faith expressed by Johnson last week in the private sector and technological solutions. Whitehead says: "She thinks the whole thing can be solved by the free market, and that intervention and sup- port is a constraint on the market rather than shaping the market to get it into a better position. "It's becoming ever more evident that you can't deliver the volumes and extent of the green and low-carbon energy revolution that is required without substantial shaping and support from the government." One step down on the departmental ladder, Yeo expresses regret that Perry has le• the role of energy minister to take over the presidency of the UK's bid to host next year's COP26 UN climate change talks. "It isn't clear whether Andrea Leadsom will be as determined to see that through as Claire was," he says. "We didn't agree all the time but at least they had the beginnings of a forward vision," says Whitehead, referring to the previous top team at BEIS. The STA's Greene says she is "very glad" Perry still has a role, although she worries about the level of energy and attention given to the setting of targets and the holding of conferences rather than action. "It doesn't help in terms of mobilising solutions, and we want to see solutions mobilised," she says. While some see holding the global cli- mate change talks in London as a potentially useful mechanism for shaming the gov- ernment into action, it is no substitute for actually taking steps to tackle the problem. "E™ ectively this is a new government but it still has all the same challenges," The new sheriff in town Andrea Leadsom, who replaces Greg Clark in the top job at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), held the energy portfolio under David Cameron's government. She became MP for South Northamptonshire in 2010 a† er a career in fund management. Leadsom was minister of state for energy at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc), her second job in govern- ment a† er serving as a junior Treasury minister under the then chancellor George Osborne. A† er her ultimately abor- tive bid to become Conservative leader following the 2016 EU ref- erendum, when she pulled out of the Œ nal poll of Tory members, the new prime minister Theresa May appointed Leadsom as environ- ment secretary. She then suŽ ered a snub fol- lowing the 2017 general election when she was appointed Leader of the House of Commons without the right to attend cabinet. Her team, the portfolios for which had not been conŒ rmed as Utility Week went to press, include Spelthorne MP Kwasi Kwarteng, who looks set to take the energy and clean growth portfolio. Newly appointed junior minister Nadhim Zahawi takes on the nuclear brief as part of the BEIS department's wider industry portfolio. "Eff ectively this is a new government but it still has all the same challenges." Lawrence Slade, chief executive, Energy–UK continued overleaf UTILITY WEEK CONGRESS 2019 8-9 October 2019 | Birmingham What the UK needs to do to realise its net zero targets is one of the key themes of Utility Week's two-day congress this October. For further information or to book your ticket, visit: uw-event.co.uk/congress

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