UK climate policy undermining confidence in low-carbon industry

Despite David Cameron’s call for ‘the greenest government ever’, there have been signs recently that government opinion on costly climate policies is hardening. The UK is committed to a cut of 50% in carbon emissions by 2025, but this could change in 2014, depending on the progress of emissions reductions in Europe.

The Ministry of Climate Change said that it was essential to ensure UK industry was not losing out by cutting emissions faster than Europe. Last week Chancellor George Osborne caused a media storm when he announced that the UK would only cut emissions as much as Europe and that business should come first.

Members of the Conservative party have been wary of the government’s decisions also, with Zac Goldsmith, Conservative committee member stating, "Unless they provide real long-term certainty, the transition to a low-carbon economy will be slower and bumpier than it needs to be."

The UK has recently signed up to the 4th carbon budget, which sets stringent targets for 2023-2027 but the mixed signals from the government is worrying Nick Molho of the WWF who says, "Failing to clearly endorse the fourth carbon budget now will not only slow down urgent action on addressing climate change, it will also seriously undermine investment certainty in the UK's low-carbon sector and result in the UK missing out on the opportunity of creating hundreds of thousands of UK jobs in low-carbon manufacturing."

The defence of a review of emissions goals, the government argues, is that too strict an emissions pathway would lead to companies moving overseas and ‘shipping their emissions elsewhere’.