UK Trends and Developments Contributed by: Ruth Byrne KC, Andrea Stauber and Erin Vandzura, King & Spalding International LLP
right pathway and the policies outlined in the strategy should go ahead; • acknowledged that the UK is not matching world-leading ambition with world-leading delivery, that it must move quickly and deci- sively, and that significant additional govern- ment action is required to ensure the UK achieves net zero in the best possible way for the economy and the public; and • identified ten “priority missions to harness public and private action out to 2035”, which included: (a) the full-scale deployment of solar, includ- ing a “rooftop revolution” to deliver up to 70 GW of British solar generation by 2035; (b) paving the way for onshore wind deploy- ment; (c) a “programmatic approach for a next- generation fleet of nuclear”; and (d) setting a clear plan for industry decar- bonisation, built around long-term invest- ment in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen networks and technologies. In March 2023, the UK government published a comprehensive policy paper responding to each of the 129 recommendations mentioned in the Net Zero Review. As part of the policy paper, the government welcomed the final report and agreed with its conclusion that net zero is “the growth opportunity of the 21st century”. Powering Up Britain On 30 March 2023, the UK government (then led by Rishi Sunak) released “Powering Up Britain” – its “blueprint for the future of energy in this coun- try”, comprising an Energy Security Plan and a Net Zero Growth Plan. These plans responded, in part, to the above-mentioned High Court rul- ing and Chris Skidmore’s Net Zero Review.
The Powering Up Britain plans sought to rein- force the UK government’s commitments to many of the targets relating to alternative power that were announced in April 2022 as part of the British Energy Security Strategy. The plans also included some new commitments in the follow- ing areas. • Solar – a taskforce would be set up to help increase the UK’s solar capacity to 70 GW by 2035. • Wind – a GBP160 million fund would support the infrastructure for floating offshore wind projects as part of the plan to deliver up to 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030 (including up to 5 GW of floating wind). • Nuclear – Great British Nuclear, which is a government-owned nuclear energy and fuels company, was tasked with co-ordinating the UK’s nuclear industry and leading the delivery of new projects in a bid to ramp up the UK’s nuclear capacity to 24 GW by 2050. • Hydrogen – the first winning projects from the GBP240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund would build on the UK’s commitment to dou- ble its low-carbon production capacity to 10 GW by 2030 (with at least half coming from electrolytic hydrogen). • CCUS – new government measures aimed at the deployment of CCUS to capture and store 20–30 million tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2030 include: (a) setting out a vision for CCUS in order to raise investor confidence and improve visibility; and (b) publishing an updated CCUS Investment Roadmap that will provide investors with the latest information on government funding and policy. The Powering Up Britain plans received a mixed response. Some claimed that the plans fell short
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