Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | DECEMBER 2021 | 21 Policy & Regulation Talking Points… "One of the things we have done to the world is being absolutely reckless in our use of water, the way we have polluted water, and in systems that use water without consideration of where it will come from tomorrow," Lord Deben, chair, Climate Change Committee "It's wrong that the wet wipe industry is a huge growing industry making huge profi ts but they don't pay any of the cost at the other end. Water companies have to pay and pass on to us in our bills." Fleur Anderson, Labour MP, on her bill to ban plastics in wet wipes "Ultimately, nuclear power will deliver a lower cost system for consumers compared with reliance on intermittent power sources alone. The RAB model will make new nuclear projects cheaper." Greg Hands, energy minister "We've got to take a cold, hard look at the energy market to understand what went wrong and to make sure we can stop this happening again." Michael Lewis, CEO, Eon UK Quote, unquote The news in numbers: 2022 The year all new homes and businesses will be required to have EV charging infrastructure • tted under new government legislation. £1.7bn Amount allocated in the Budget for new funding to help get one major new nuclear power plant o€ the ground before the next election. £500m The estimate for how much of the above funding will be required to buy out CGN's 20% stake in EDF's Sizewell C development, leading to questions as to where the rest of the amount will be allocated. £4.70 Estimated cost per annum for each household of the government's new scheme to support the production of green gas. Will COP fever linger longer? Comment David Blackman Policy correspondent F or the people of Glasgow, life is getting back to normal a er the fortnight- long takeover of Scotland's biggest city by the UN's COP26 climate change conference. The UK's hosting of COP has been a powerful spur on the government to galvanise action on climate change. However, now that the jamboree has moved on, there will be inevi- table concerns that the pace of action will slacken. Some worry that, for Boris Johnson at least, the principal appeal of holding COP was the opportunity to grandstand on the international stage. Now that COP is over, goes this line of thinking, the prime minister will be more sensitive to the concerns among his own backbenchers and the Conservative-supporting press about the economic dangers of pursuing net zero. Those concerns will have been partially allayed by the prime minister's speech to the CBI's annual conference in November. While the speech was largely decried as a car crash, supporters of climate change action will have drawn succour from Johnson's emphasis on the importance of green energy to the government's wider economic growth agenda. Moves to make electric vehicle charge points manda- tory in new homes and set up a bespoke pot for marine renewable technologies in the upcoming Contracts for Di‹ er- ence (CfD) auctions will have provided further reassurance. Meanwhile, concerns Johnson may have harboured about the unpopularity of green policies within his own party will have been soothed by the lack of visible opposition from climate change action sceptics at the Conservatives' annual party conference's fringe. The opinion poll from YouGov showing that voters are more concerned about climate change than other obviously hot button issue, like migration, demonstrates that the government can be on the side of the angels and the voters at the same time. Many key steps have been taken in the run-up to COP, like the publication of the Net Zero and Heat And Buildings Strategies, which will make backsliding more complicated for ministers. As pressure on living costs intensify during the winter, the temptation will grow for the government to trim measures that require an immediate outlay even if they deliver • nancial bene• ts over the longer term. The hangover from Glasgow will be a long one. And as is o en the case with Johnson's style of government, the major concerns don't sur- round aspirations but delivery. Now begins the hard yards of implementation, an area that has never been seen as the PM's strong suit. Will COP fever linger longer?

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