Last year signaled a policy “U-turn” in which the United Kingdom turned away from low-carbon technology advancement, putting the nation’s economy at risk in a low-carbon future, according to a report issued Thursday by environmental groups CAFOD, Christian Aid, Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and the World Wildlife Fund. “UK domestic investment has slowed or gone in reverse in key development areas such as building insulation, onshore renewables and carbon capture and storage,” the report finds.
In late 2015, the U.K. government announced it was scrapping the nation’s £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition, leaving developers of two promising commercial-scale CCS project with little choice but to stop work.
As the world works toward a low-carbon future, the U.K should increase, not decrease, its investments in clean energy innovation, the report says. “Support should focus on innovation and the implementation of technologies and services. This would enable the UK to build competitive, low carbon supply chains, [e.g.,] for energy efficient buildings, renewable technologies, smart deployment and carbon capture and storage,” the report says.
“To succeed in a world rapidly shifting to a low carbon economy, the UK needs more internationally competitive and innovative clean industries. To achieve this, we need to super charge our climate and energy strategy to create an even more attractive investment environment in which innovation and the entrepreneurs of the future can thrive,” Greg Barker, former U.K. minister of state for energy and climate change, said in a Green Alliance release.
