The Government published its Clean Growth Strategy in October 2017, setting out how it intended to meet the ‘carbon budget’ emissions reduction targets under the Climate Change Act.
Objectives of the consultation
The Science and Technology Committee undertook an inquiry into the technologies needed to meet Clean Growth emissions reduction targets and welcomed written evidence addressing the following issues:
- The strategy – The relative importance of the four main areas identified in the Strategy (‘Improving Our Homes’, ‘Accelerating the Shift to Low Carbon Transport’, ‘Delivering Clean, Smart, Flexible Power’ and ‘Enhancing the Benefits and Value of Our Natural Resources’), and whether the Strategy places the right weight on each of those sectors to deliver emissions reductions; progress on meeting carbon budget targets to date and areas where more progress is needed going forward; the extent to which current and future technologies can help to meet the carbon budgets; and the uncertainty in future technologies’ contribution to emissions reductions, and how that uncertainty can best be incorporated into the Government’s carbon budgets;
- How the development and deployment of technology can best be supported, and the extent to which the Government should support specific technologies or pursue a ‘technology neutral’ approach;
- The relative priority that should be attached to developing new technologies compared to deploying existing technologies, including consideration of the costs and pollution involved in the decommissioning of technologies or infrastructure;
- Examples of specific technologies whose development and deployment have been effectively supported so far, as well as those that show particular promise for meeting the Government’s carbon emissions targets or supporting the UK’s economy, or which would benefit from specific Government action, in the future; and
- The role of the Industrial Strategy ‘Clean Growth Grand Challenge’, and what the Government should do to ensure it contributes effectively to meeting emissions targets.
The inquiry closed on 26 October 2018.
CIBSE response
CIBSE did not submit its own institutional response to this consultation but made a significant contribution to the response from the Royal Academy of Engineering, which is published, along other submissions, on the Science and Technology Committee website.
To read the RAEng submission please follow the link below.