The Carbon Trust responds to the Department of Energy and
Climate Change's publication of draft Energy Bill on Tuesday 22 May
2012.
Simon Retallack, Strategy Manager at the Carbon Trust, said:
"Electricity market reform is critical to ensure that our carbon
and energy security objectives are met over the coming years.
Providing a stable and long term price for low carbon energy is
essential to provide investors with the confidence needed to
support the £110bn of new capital investment required this
decade.
"The big opportunity is to get the market reform right through
introducing Contracts for Difference and achieving technology cost
reduction over time. Targeted innovation programmes can help
significantly ensuring we deliver low carbon electricity at the
lowest cost to the consumer and also help us generate a significant
new industry that can create economic value for the UK. For example
we have the potential to drive down the cost of offshore wind by a
quarter by 2020, grow an export market and create up to 200,000
jobs.
"The inclusion of an Emissions Performance Standard is a big
step forward in constraining the growth of the UK's carbon
footprint, although it does not yet go far enough to meet future
needs. The UK cannot meet its carbon targets with unabated gas
plants operating as late as 2045, as is now proposed. To meet our
carbon targets, the UK will need to remain on track to decarbonise
the electricity sector by around 2030. That will require equipping
any new and existing gas power plants with carbon capture and
storage technology by this time and ramping up deployment of a
number of other low carbon technologies."
For more information download the draft
Energy Bill (PDF).