The Government is committed setting a decarbonisation target. We have recently laid amendments to the Energy Bill to enable a legally binding decarbonisation target for the electricity sector to be set in 2016. This will help decarbonise the UK’s energy supplies and put us on the road to a low-carbon future.
The UK’s tough emissions and renewable targets provide a solid overall policy framework, and the Government is pushing through ambitious reforms to overhaul existing old fossil fuel plants and replace them with new low carbon generation.
The Energy Bill will put a fair price on carbon, providing a stronger incentive to invest in low carbon generation now. As part of this Bill, powers to set a decarbonisation target range for 2030 will be brought forward in secondary legislation. It has been decided to set the target in 2016, once the Climate Change Committee has provided advice - in line with the fifth Carbon Budget which covers the corresponding period. It is right to fix the target in terms of the prevailing circumstances at the time, and in the context of the economy as a whole to which decarbonisation of the sector is inextricably linked.
The Government has no doubt that the UK will retain its status as a great place to do low-carbon business. The Energy Bill will attract £110 billion of investment to bring about a once in a generation transformation of the UK’s electricity mix. It will be moving from a predominantly fossil-fuel to a diverse low-carbon generation mix. In addition, we have established Europe's first Green Investment Bank, which will lever over £15 billion of investment in to green projects and technologies by 2014-15.
The Government’s Green Deal will enable every British home and business to install packages of energy-saving technologies worth up to £10,000, at no upfront cost, with repayments made out of the energy savings. This will revolutionise the energy efficiency of British homes and could support 65,000 jobs in the insulation industry by 2020.