The UK Government has quietly admitted to MPs that low-carbon technologies essential to hitting Net Zero are more expensive than using fossil fuels – despite Ed Miliband repeatedly insisting Net Zero will bring energy bills down. City AM has the story.
Labour Ministers are expected to double down on expanding the use of green technologies to lower costs as the Treasury and Department for Business and Trade are set to unveil the UK’s industrial strategy next week.
The blueprint for growing the economy will outline plans to lower energy costs. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) saw its budget increase by 16% at the Spending Review, with more funding set to go towards nuclear power and clean energy in a bid to remove nearly all fossil fuels from UK electricity production by 2030.
But officials working under Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the Committee of Public Accounts, which scrutinises expenditure by different government bodies, that higher electricity prices made “low carbon technologies” more expensive despite the Government linking the development of green technology to more affordable energy bills.
The admission came in the minutes for a PAC report, which is publicly available online, detailing the Government’s responses to recommendations made on energy policy.
The statement explains that high residential electricity prices in the UK do not reflect the “cheaper wholesale price of clean energy” and can stem from the costs of some Net Zero policies.
“Low carbon technologies can be more expensive to run than fossil-fuel powered alternatives,” the Government’s response read.
“The price disparity between electricity and gas needs to be addressed to make it more attractive for consumers to install clean technologies like heat pumps.”
It follows a similar admission earlier this year that Net Zero policies would push up energy bills in the “short to medium term” according to a page on the Government’s website, as first reported in the Telegraph.
Data published in March showed standard electricity bills reaching £1,067 last year compared to £814 for gas, meaning average energy bills were £1,881 in 2024.
Manufacturers paid just under twice as much for electricity as they did for either gas or other fuels last year, with UK industrial electricity bills nearly 50% higher than those seen in France and Germany and roughly four times higher than in the US.
Worth reading in full.
The admission comes as it’s reported that Ed Miliband has opened the door to North Sea drilling by rewriting the rules on Britain’s CO2 emissions that were used by a court last year to block Equinor’s Rosebank oil field and Shell’s Jackdaw gas field. The Telegraph reports that both companies have immediately announced plans to seek new licences for the projects. Yet another U-turn from a Government that keeps being smacked in the face by reality.
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