Government ‘to miss 2020 renewable energy targets’

On its current course, the UK will fail to achieve its 2020 renewable energy targets – to provide for 15% of its energy needs from renewable sources – according to a new report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee.

The overall obligation includes three sub-targets: a 30% saving in electricity use, 12% in heat and 10% in transport. And, while the UK is three-quarters of the way towards its electricity sub-target and is expected to exceed it by 2020, it is not yet halfway towards 12% in heat and the proportion of renewable energy used in transport actually fell last year, according to the Committee.

The report echoes similar points made recently by the government’s Committee on Climate Change – see Energy World September 2016.

Energy and Climate Change Chair Angus MacNeil MP said: ‘the experts we spoke to were clear: the UK will miss its 2020 renewable energy targets without major policy improvements. The government must take urgent action on heat and transport to renew its efforts on decarbonisation.’

The report identifies a number of ways in which the key policies to meet the heat and transport targets – the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) – could be improved:

• The government's proposed reforms to the RHI are not the optimal pathway to the 2020 renewable heat target. Many heat pumps have proven unsatisfactory in actual use, yet are being prioritised over biomass – which has been successful. Biomethane is also crucial to meeting the 2020 target and must remain a funding priority.
• between 2014 and 2015, when the proportion of renewable energy fell from 4.9% to 4.2%. The RTFO has been capped at 4.75% since 2013, well below the level needed to meet the 2020 target.

Central to the government's plans for transport electrification is an aim for all new cars to be ultra-low emission by 2040 (presently, only 1.1% are), adds the report. To achieve this ambition, it should consider re-introducing a tiered system of Vehicle Excise Duty to restore incentives for electric cars and other ultra low emission vehicles. 

Leaving the EU renders the status of the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets uncertain. But the Committee believes that if the UK misses or reneges on these commitments, it will undermine confidence in the government’s commitment to its legally binding 2050 carbon targets. The government must therefore recommit to the 2020 targets or, if necessary, set replacement targets to support the longer-term decarbonisation objectives of the Climate Change Act. 

Meanwhile, a new report from Policy Exchange suggests that the previous government’s plan to focus on electric heat pumps and install heat pumps in four out of five homes could cost £300bn. It proposes an alternative strategy to decarbonise heating, focusing on tighter energy efficiency standards for new build homes and existing private rented properties; encouraging people to install new efficient boilers and expanding the use of ‘greener gases’ such as biomethane; and ditching the EU’s Renewable Heat target, which has asked Britain to pursue expensive technologies.

The report suggests that the UK is significantly off track to meeting legally binding carbon budgets covering the period to 2032, and the lack of progress to decarbonise heating could make or break the UK’s carbon plans.