Energy Secretary Ed Miliband reaffirmed his commitment to the UK’s renewable energy future at an energy industry conference yesterday (17 September).
Speaking at the Energy UK annual conference in London, Miliband addressed the differences in the government’s energy strategy between his first tenure as Energy Secretary in 2008 and today, arguing that the earlier “trilemma” of balancing affordability, security and sustainability was no longer accurate and noting that UK-based renewable energy generation is beneficial in all three of these areas.
Discussing the energy bill crisis following the Russian invasion into Ukraine in 2002, Miliband remarked that Britain “paid a heavy price because of our exposure to fossil fuels”, calling the rise in energy prices a “disaster” for both households and the public purse.
He argued that the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels “leaves us deeply vulnerable as a country”, both financially and politically, adding that for as long as the UK is dependent on fossil fuels, “We simply won’t have control over our energy bills and any politician that pretends we will is trying to fool you, because these markets are in the grip of dictators and petrostates.”
Referencing a report from the Climate Change Committee that said the UK is significantly behind on its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) emissions reduction targets, Miliband lamented the UK’s lack of clean energy jobs, commenting that Germany, Sweden and Denmark have almost two, three and four times as many renewable energy jobs per capita as Britain respectively.
Significantly, the energy secretary issued a stern warning to those weaponizing the UK’s planning system to prevent renewable energy projects from being delivered, saying: “My message today is we will take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists, because the clean energy sprint is the economic justice, energy security and national security fight of our time.”
Commenting on Miliband’s remarks, Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) called for more investment into energy efficiency retrofitting in homes across the country: “Reducing our gas demand is the most sensible step we can take after being the country worst hit in Western Europe from the crisis and moving to clean power is more of a no-brainer now than it has ever been before. Households have paid the price for inefficient, leaky homes for decades but especially over the course of the crisis. Surely it’s obvious to the new government that we need to get on with insulating them if we want to shield families from higher bills.”
Meanwhile, Sam Richards, CEO of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, argued that the UK’s planning and permitting systems for renewable energy projects needs urgent reform, noting: “Our sclerotic planning system means it can take up to 13 years to build a new offshore wind farm, despite actual construction of the turbines only taking two years. Anything that can slash the time it takes to build more offshore wind farms is welcome news.
“But the government has more to do. Work needs to be done to streamline environmental impact assessments and tackling baseless judicial reviews. It is things like these that add a huge amount of time and cost to building any kind of infrastructure in Britain.”
Foreign secretary promises international climate investment
Meanwhile, on the other side of London, Foreign Secretary David Lammy gave his first major foreign policy speech, as part of the Kew Gardens lecture series.
Lammy noted that across the world, foreign policy is becoming increasingly intertwined with economic, environmental and industrial policy, as evidenced by the US’s Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s Green Deal. He issued a promise to unlock global climate finance for nations struggling to access climate finance, while also noting that the UK government “is pushing for an ambitious new climate finance goal focused on developing countries at COP29 in November.”
Griff Thomas, MD of low-carbon technology firms GTEC and Heatly, called Lammy’s speech “a sobering picture of the true impact of climate change”, noting that Lammy’s “clear and serious messaging is refreshing and very different to the previous government”.
Thomas added: “Lammy has vowed to make tackling the climate and nature crisis, ‘central to all the Foreign Office does’, recognising that these issues are at the core of many other areas of foreign policy, likening them to a similar threat as terrorism and viewing extreme weather events as ‘failures in politics, regulation and international co-operation’. Framing it in this way will hopefully communicate the urgency of the issue to those who still view the climate crisis as a distant problem that doesn’t affect them.”
