RenewableUK has voiced its support for more ambitious green growth targets called for by Labour’s Ed Miliband in a speech to the Green Alliance think tank earlier this week.
Head of public affairs at RenewableUK, Nathan Bennett, said: “Labour is right to say that green technology offers all of us an enormous opportunity to build a new economy for the twenty-first century, filled with new investment and jobs.”
He added that incentives for renewable energy developers and supply chain companies in the US and EU were not being matched by the UK.
“We need to raise our game if we want to ensure that the billions of pounds of private investment expected in clean energy – and the new factories and jobs underpinning it – come to the UK rather than going to competitor countries,” Bennett said.
Miliband was talking before the launch of the government’s revised Net Zero strategy report on Thursday, which has faced criticism from environmental groups.
The Shadow Secretary of State of Climate Change and Net Zero concentrated on the economic opportunities afforded by a more ambitious green agenda, saying that the “global race” for green jobs “has now entered its critical phase”, due to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the US last year.
The root of the problem was a “failure to understand what a modern industrial policy looks like,” he added.
RenewableUK said that Miliband was right to highlight investment in ports as a key driver of building out offshore wind capacity.
The UK government’s latest net zero plan was drawn up after a High Court ruling that its previous plan was not detailed enough to meet its climate commitments. Miliband sought to position Labour as having a more consistent industrial strategy, reiterating a commitment to spend £28 billion a year on green investment, including £1.8 billion on investment in UK ports.
Miliband also criticised the UK’s current planning system, which he said had been used to block green investment, especially in onshore wind. He called for “action to break down the barriers in planning”.
RenewableUK welcomed “Labour’s commitments to speed up the UK’s moribund planning system and to introduce a net zero mandate for every regulator, focusing particularly on Ofgem”.
“This would enable us to connect new projects which currently face years of needless delays”, Mike Bennett said.
RenewableUK’s deputy chief executive, Melanie Orr, is the former Labour MP for Great Grimsby, and one of two candidates shortlisted for the Red Wall seat by Labour for the next general election.
