*[Enwl-eng] Net zero: how UK squanders benefits
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No images? Click here  The UK's commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 is in doubt after Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, refused to back existing pledges to phase out the sale of combustion-engine cars and gas boilers in the 2030s. His party narrowly retained a parliamentary seat in suburban west London last week after the Conservative candidate spun the race as a referendum on the proposed extension of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez), a charge on people driving older and more polluting vehicles in inner London boroughs. Sunak said that such measures should not “unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives”. How these green policies are designed will ultimately determine whether that is the case, and experts have repeatedly criticised the UK government for failing to realise the benefits of decarbonisation for the public. You're reading the Imagine newsletter – a weekly synthesis of academic insight on solutions to climate change, brought to you by The Conversation. I'm Jack Marley, energy and environment editor. This week, we're dissecting Sunak's threat to abandon "unfair" net zero pledges. When Sunak was head of the treasury he presented the UK's net zero strategy at the Glasgow climate conference in autumn 2021 along with a review of the necessary funding. Aled Jones, director of the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, noticed a telling oversight. "The problem is that it presents only costs and omits the benefits," he says. "When benefits are finally acknowledged, they are underplayed." Jones highlighted one chart which showed that investing in electric vehicles and heat pumps would allow everyone to pay less for energy in 2050 than they did in 2019. Even so, the review overlooked the government's own estimates of how much more expensive fossil fuels will be by then. "A fairer comparison of 2050 petrol cars and gas heating would show a much larger benefit to households from the transition," he says. Sunak's review also acknowledged that the UK has the lowest public and private investment of any G7 country and comparatively meagre levels of productivity. "Yet the review fails to connect the two points and explore the productivity benefits of getting to net zero," he adds. Jones argues that Sunak and the Tories have been preoccupied with the upfront costs of investing in a green transition and ambivalent about the payoff from the outset. Other academics have shown how this thinking continues to influence the UK's climate policies. Who benefits? Take transport: the UK's largest emitting sector. The government scrapped a discount on the purchase of electric vehicles known as the plug-in car grant last year. Instead, it will subsidise company cars and focus on building more charging points (without allocating more funding, it seems). "It raises a big question over fairness", say David Bailey and Phil Tomlinson. Bailey is a professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham while Tomlinson lectures in industrial strategy at the University of Bath. "Opting for an electric vehicle is becoming an increasingly obvious choice for managers and business owners, with a tax system designed to assist them. So far, so good – for the relatively well off." Without the grant, poorer households with less private car parking space must now shell out more to buy an electric vehicle. And since on-street charging points add 20% VAT to the price of electricity, it's more affluent homes with big driveways that benefit most from the 5% tax on domestic charging. "The government seems to have forgotten about helping the less well off into electric vehicles," the pair say. Green tariffs on energy bills offer another example. According to research by energy experts John Barrett and Anne Owen at the University of Leeds, the poorest are hit hardest by levies designed to raise money for energy-saving measures. Despite using less energy than richer homes, low-income households receive less money back in the form of home improvements than they contribute in the first place. "Our research demonstrates it is clearly possible to design a system that is both fair and effective," they add. And while consumers have been forced to pay record sums for gas heating in recent months, the UK is replacing boilers and insulating homes at a glacial pace. Home installations of energy-efficient heat pumps were more than seven times higher in France last year. Their secret? Making the switch easier for consumers. "France has combined a 30% tax credit on improvements to heating and home insulation costing up to €16,000 with a 0% interest loan of up to €30,000 for energy efficiency upgrades," says Ned Lamb, a research associate in low-carbon energy systems at Warwick Business School. "These measures address two things which prevent people from getting a heat pump: the upfront cost of installation and the renovations required to prepare a home." Sunak claims to be "standing up for the British people" by questioning these pledges. But the fiercest opposition to net zero has come from industries and not the public says Lamb. For instance, boiler manufacturers are urging the government to delay a measure which would ask them to sell four heat pumps for every 100 boilers from 2024. Without a concerted effort to counter this influence, the government's climate policy will continue to let down the people who otherwise stand to gain from decarbonisation argues Steven R. Smith, a visiting research fellow at the University of Surrey's Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity. "Until the elements of UK civil society and polity who advocate accelerating action for a rapid transition become a much more effective, collaborative, strategic and coherent coalition," says Smith, "most of us probably will accept the doublethink and put up with it." - Jack Marley, Environment commissioning editor Was this email forwarded to you? Join the 20,000 people who get one email every week about the most important issue of our time. Subscribe to Imagine.  Three charts that show what’s wrong with the UK’s net zero plans Chancellor Rishi Sunak's spending plans may thwart the government's proposals for reach net zero.  The road ahead for electric cars relies on affordability, not scrapping grants Scrapping a grant for electric cars in the UK may be a backward move.  Poorest households hit hardest by UK climate change charges despite using least energy Those on low incomes get less back from home improvement schemes than they pay in government charges.  How heating your home fuels climate change – and why government measures are failing to stop it The UK trails European neighbours on replacing gas boilers with energy-efficient heat pumps.  Why a serious climate strategy is almost impossible in the UK’s current political system The country is missing a strong and strategic coalition of pro-climate interest groups, says research.  Net-zero carbon emissions won’t be sustainable if social inequalities aren’t addressed The effects of climate change and mitigation are not just unequal between countries but also within countries. Latest from The Conversation on climate change
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Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2023 8:02 PM
Subject: Net zero: how UK squanders benefits |
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