Utility Week

22 | 4TH - 10TH OCTOBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Policy & Regulation Analysis D epending on your point of view, it was either the day that Labour checked out of political reality or the point at which the party faced up to the existential crisis threatening humanity. The day in question was last Tuesday. While the nation reeled from the Supreme Court's ruling that the government's sus- pension of Parliament had been unlawful, earnest delegates at the Labour party confer- ence debated a motion committing the party to cut emissions to net zero by 2030 – a full two decades earlier than the target set by the government earlier this year. The adoption of the motion, which also called for nationalisation of the big six suppliers and a mass insulation retroƒ t programme for the UK's housing stock – among other measures – was passed by an overwhelming majority. Labour's backing marks a remarkable achievement for its Green New Deal cam- paign, which was only launched a few months ago. Lacking in credibility However, many worry that the party's com- mitment lacks credibility. These include the GMB union, which represents many workers in the gas and nuclear industries, which put up a stiŒ ƒ ght against putting the 2030 target to a vote. The union, one of Labour's biggest pay- masters, backed an alternative motion that stopped short of setting the end of next decade as the target date. GMB general secretary Tim Roache was forthright in his concern that 2030 is too soon a target, arguing that it is not backed up by a concrete plan. "That is what will convince people. It is what will ensure we can manage this process in an orderly and just transition that does not shut down industries and harm commu- nities in the way that we saw in the 1980s. "Action on climate change matters too much to promise something that cannot be delivered. "Nobody thinks 2030 is a remotely achievable deadline. There is no conceivable pathway to 2030. To reach this target by 2030, work would have had to have started ten years ago – it wasn't." Roache's concerns were echoed by Lord Deben, chair of the Committee on Climate Change. Speaking at Utility Week's New Deal for Utilities debate, he said: "Saying you're going to achieve net zero by 2030 is very easy until you work out how you're going to do it. The truth is we were looking at things like the availability of batteries and what needs to be done to get to the net zero target and we came to 2050 as the only answer within the tech- nology we have available that was realistic." Even Sue Hayman, the party's shadow environment secretary, described the target as "quite challenging" at a Labour confer- ence meeting organised by the Nuclear Industry Association. Peter McIntosh, national o› cer for energy for the union Unite, went further by telling the same meeting that Labour's 2030 aspiration was "very, very challenging". Is Labour's net zero plan viable? Labour members' backing of a motion setting the new net zero target of 2030 is certainly ambitious, but is it achievable? David Blackman investigates. Public ownership concerns The party's commitment to renationalise the energy sector, which the motion expanded to suppliers as well as the networks, will make even existing decarbonisation targets harder to achieve, according to a report published on 13 September. The research report, carried out by con- sultancy Frontier Economics for the Energy Networks Association, warns that reversing privatisation creates a "very signiƒ cant risk" of higher costs and delays. The analysis of Labour's blueprint for restoring public ownership of the energy sys- tem says it will result in delays, potentially disrupt innovation, result in funding uncer- tainty and create a more geographically frag- mented and less e› cient sector that could lead to a postcode lottery in terms of costs and reliability. It goes on to say: "Taking the networks back into public ownership creates clear risks in respect of the e› cient delivery of net zero on time. The lessons of the past suggest that such a move would be likely to hamper delivery. "Seemingly modest delays can make achieving net zero far more challenging, increase costs and delay the achievement of beneƒ ts." Energy UK, in its response to Labour's Green New Deal vote, pointed to the neces- sity of harnessing private investment to meeting net zero. The party doubled down on its public ownership pledge last week, with Rebecca Long-Bailey, shadow business and energy secretary, making a commitment that it would roll out a new ž eet of majority public- owned oŒ shore wind farms. Referring to this pledge, one energy net- work source said: "It's obviously a concern because we don't want any delay in the output of renewables." "We need a plan. This is bigger than Brexit – this is about the future of the planet." LISA NANDY, LABOUR MP FOR WIGAN AND FORMER SHADOW ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE SECRETARY

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