Independent Review of Net Zero
A debate has been scheduled in the Commons Chamber on Thursday 9 February on the Independent Review of Net Zero. The subject for the debate has been chosen by the Backbench Business Committee, and the debate will be opened by Chris Skidmore MP.
On 13 January 2022, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published Mission Zero: Independent Review of Net Zero. The review was commissioned by the Secretary of State for BEIS in September 2022.
The terms of reference accompanying the review provided further details on the scope and purpose of the review, stating that it would consider how the Government could:
- deliver maximum economic growth and investment, driving opportunities for private investment, jobs, innovation, exports, and growth right across the UK;
- support UK energy security and affordability for consumers and business and the need to rapidly increase and strengthen UK energy production and supply;
- minimise costs borne by businesses and consumers, particularly in the short-term.
The executive summary of the review provided further context on how the review was conducted and how its findings were presented:
The Net Zero Review travelled to all four nations of the UK, received over 1800 responses to the Call for Evidence, and held more than 50 roundtables, making it one of the largest engagement exercises on net zero in the UK. We heard a clear message from businesses, organisations, individuals, and local government across the country: net zero is creating a new era of opportunity, but government, industry, and individuals need to act to make the most of the opportunities, reduce costs, and ensure we deliver successfully.
The Review is split into two parts:
Part 1 explains the opportunity and benefits to individuals and the economy. It places domestic action in an international context and emphasises that the UK must go further and faster to realise the economic benefits of net zero.
Part 2 sets out how to achieve this opportunity, across six pillars. It makes recommendations to catalyse action in individual sectors of the economy, and to enhance the role of local authorities, communities, and individuals to deliver net zero.
Recommendations
The review made 129 recommendations to Government on how to take economic advantage of the transition to net zero. The executive summary highlighted five key recommendations:
Conduct and publish, before Autumn 2023, a review of how we should change regulation for emerging net zero technologies to enable their rapid and safe introduction, to support the net zero transition and boost growth
Review how policy incentivises investment in decarbonisation, including via the tax system and capital allowances.
At the next Spending Review, review options for providing longer-term certainty to a small number of major priorities for net zero – where we know that long-term policy commitment will be essential for success and provide long-term opportunities to save money.
Through their update to the Green Finance Strategy, BEIS and HMT should set out a clear, robust and ambitious approach to disclosure, standard setting, and scaling up green finance – including how it will meet existing commitments to implement Sustainable Disclosure Requirements across the economy, how it will provide a clear, long-term plan for attracting capital to meet net zero ambitions, and how to maintain the UK’s position as the leading green finance hub internationally and metrics for success.
Publish an overarching financing strategy covering how existing and future government spending, policies, and regulation will scale up private finance to deliver the UK’s net zero enabled growth and energy security ambitions. This should include setting out the role of UKIB, BBB, BII, and IPA and UKEF in the transition.
Parliamentary reaction
In a press release published by BEIS on 13 January 2022, the then Business and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps welcomed the publication:
With a wealth of talent and expertise, and a track record to be proud of, the UK is well placed to ensure that tackling climate change also brings new jobs and investment for businesses and communities.
I am grateful to Chris Skidmore – the man who signed our climate commitments into law – for his detailed report today, which offers a range of ideas and innovations for us to consider as we work to grasp the opportunities from green growth.
On the same day, the Environmental Audit Committee published reaction to the review from the its Chair, Philip Dunne MP. He stated that “Ministers should carefully consider all the recommendations of this important review, which plainly sets out just what needs to be done to drive beneficial and meaningful change. All eyes will now be on the Government’s response”.
The Prime Minister responded to publication of the review during Prime Ministers Questions on 18 January 2023:
I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingswood (Chris Skidmore) for his review, and also pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne) for his work in this area. I am pleased that the report recognised the UK’s leadership in tackling climate change and catalysing a global transformation in how other countries are dealing with it. We have, as the report acknowledged, exceeded expectations to decarbonise, and we will respond to the full range of the review’s requests and recommendations in the coming year.
On 26 January 2023, the Government response to the review was debated in the House of Lords. Closing the debate, Lord Callanan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, BEIS, highlighted that the benefits of net zero outweighed the costs:
The review confirms what the Government have understood for years now: that the benefits of net zero far outweigh its costs. As the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, observed, the costs of global inaction significantly outweigh the costs of action. Delaying action will only put future generations at risk, and the UK’s approach demonstrates that green and growth can go hand in hand. The UK’s net-zero transition provides lots of exciting investment opportunities for the private sector, all of which we are doing our best to leverage.
Additional reaction
In a press release published on 13 January 2023, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics provided a reaction to the review from its Chair, Lord Stern:
Chris Skidmore and his team deserve great credit for carrying out a rigorous, robust, and inclusive review of the evidence on the economics of the UK’s net-zero transition. In particular, the review has argued convincingly that the transition to a net-zero economy is the growth opportunity of the 21st century, and the UK is well-placed to benefit from the increasing demand for net-zero goods and services, if it makes the right public and private investments. It also correctly highlights the critical importance of government creating an environment that is conducive to this investment by providing clarity, certainty, consistency and continuity of policy.
I hope the Prime Minister and his government will respond to the review with the urgency and scale required to prevent this enormous economic opportunity from slipping through our fingers. This transition, and the investment and innovation it embodies, are at the core of the UK’s growth story for the coming decade.
The Grantham Institute’s Policy Analyst, Esin Serin, also set out the strength of the reviews findings:
The review’s main strength is that it builds its conclusions on strong evidence and analysis, including our own gathered from a comprehensive consultation process led by the review team.
We have found that the UK has comparative advantage in clean technologies overall and in some specific technologies, including offshore wind and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), which have the potential to deliver especially high returns to public investment in innovation.
I hope this review will reinforce transition efforts already underway and catalyse urgently needed further action for the successful delivery of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy.
Press coverage and additional material
The following source and press articles provide additional coverage of and reaction to the Mission Zero review and its findings.
- Mission zero: Independent review of net zero, House of Lords Library, 20 January 2023
- Net zero: Climate action delay will hurt economy, Tory MP’s review says BBC News, 13 January 2023
- Why net zero tsar’s review is a damning indictment of Tory government, The Guardian, 12 January
- Which construction companies are on track to meet their net zero targets?, New Civil Engineer, 7 February 2023
- Government's ‘top down-approach’ to net zero 'holding back progress', Civil Service World, 2 February 2023
- Armitt: Skidmore Net Zero report "nails argument that inaction now will cost us all in the long run", National Infrastructure Commission, 13 January 2023
- 'Historic opportunity': Net Zero Review calls on government to move 'further and faster' in pursuit of net zero goals, Business Green, 13 January 2023
- The British Academy responds to final report of Independent Review of Net Zero, British Academy, 16 January 2023
- Royal Society responds to the Independent Review of Net Zero, The Royal Society, 13 January 2023
- CIH response to Mission Zero: Independent Review of Net Zero, Chartered Institute of Housing, 13 January 2023
Net Zero: Lords question for short debate on what steps they plan to take in response to the report by Chris Skidmore MP Mission Zero: Independent Review of Net Zero, published on 13 January.
HL Deb 26 January 2023 | Vol 827 cc366-383
Lords question for short debate on Net-zero Emissions: Behaviour Change
HL Deb 20 October 2022 | Vol 824 c1213-1229
Parliamentary QuestionsNuclear Power: Carbon Emissions
Asked by: Spellar, John
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential role of nuclear power in decarbonising the supply of electricity.
Answering member: Graham Stuart | Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Government recognises the important role that nuclear has to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. This is reflected in the British Energy Security Strategy, published in April 2022, which sets out Government’s ambition to deploy up to 24 Giga Watts of nuclear power by 2050.
The Department is considering the findings of the independent review of net zero, published on 13th January 2023, which reaffirmed many of the proposals set out in the British Energy Security Strategy for nuclear power.
HC Deb 26 January 2023 | PQ 127693
Asked by: Lewis, Clive
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to Mission Zero - the Independent Review of Net Zero, if he will implement the review's recommendation to a publish a public engagement plan for England with clear metrics for successful engagement across different communities in the UK.by the end of 2023.
Answering member: Graham Stuart | Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Government published the results of Chris Skidmore’s Net Zero Review on 13 January 2023 and thanks the chair for conducting this review. The Government will carefully consider the recommendations and respond to the review later in the year.
HC Deb 26 January 2023 | PQ 126739
Electricity Generation: Fossil Fuels
Asked by: Huq, Dr Rupa
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of delivering a fossil fuel-free electricity system by 2030.
Answering member: Graham Stuart | Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Government is already enabling the transition of the electricity system to low emissions, as part of delivering Net Zero by 2050. 95% of British electricity could be low-carbon by 2030. This transition cannot be at the expense of security of supply, a critical consideration as the use of fossil fuels reduces and the system relies more on renewables.
The Government will continue to assess its progress in power sector decarbonization, including when responding to the annual progress report from the Climate Change Committee next year, taking account of the finding of the independent review of net zero.
HC Deb 31 October 2022 | PQ 69742
Asked by: Rees, Christina
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether any assessment of Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin will be made in future reviews into Net Zero.
Answering member: Graham Stuart | Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) play a key role in the carbon accounting framework as well as the marketing of green energy products for consumers. Moving towards a net zero system by 2035, it is vital that these benefits can continue to be quantified and therefore any future reviews of net zero should include the role of REGOs as a consideration.
HC Deb 12 October 2022 | PQ 53470