Making progress on the path to a clean energy economy

In this article Tom Hoines, Divisional Director of Reed Environment, shares how we are supporting the UK on the pathway to Net Zero in light of the Climate Change Committee's latest recommendations.

The period from 2038 to 2042 seems like a very long time away, especially for the five-year-olds who will be entering adulthood by then. But by the end of next June, the Government must ask Parliament to approve a limit on greenhouse gas emissions for that period - the seventh of its legally binding milestones on the pathway to Net Zero by 2050.

The UK’s Climate Change Committee has recently set out its recommendations on what this limit should be and how the UK can deliver it. Its assessment makes for a really thought-provoking read. The electrification of the UK is centre stage. The UK needs to both move to a low-carbon energy system but also electrify our homes, transport and industries. The pathway is much clearer than before in its focus on electrification, but it is also potentially cheaper, with the costs of key technologies falling rapidly and expected to fall much further.

Three highlights that jump out are as follows:

1. The critical role of household decisions on moving to electric cars and replacing boilers with heat pumps. The Commission’s pathway sees household decisions - mainly these two - as making up more than one-third of all emissions reduction in 2040. While Government help needs to be stepped up in supporting households with the very real cost and practical barriers of making changes to their home, the longer-term savings are clear. Reed in Partnership is currently working with Warm Homes Suffolk to help households better understand the energy efficiency of their homes through an innovative energy efficiency assessment voucher scheme. We have seen great take-up, with residents keen to take this opportunity to understand the improvements they could make in a way that is practical for them.

2. The skills challenge remains paramount, but for some roles it is more urgent than others. Again, domestic heating is highlighted as an urgent priority. The work that Reed in Partnership is doing to retrain skilled tradespeople in installing heat pumps through the energy academies run by our training partner OEA is focused supporting this pipeline, while the electrical apprenticeships we offer are seeking to address the economy-wide shortage of electricians. It is welcome to see the Commission singling out sectors dominated by small businesses as needing more proactive help, as the recent report we commissioned from the Social Market Foundation argued.

3. The Net Zero transition represents a really exciting opportunity for the workforce if we are proactive in making sure people do not get left behind. Opening up apprenticeship opportunities to young people in their communities, supporting small local businesses and retraining unemployed people are just some of the ways in which we can make this a fair transition. The transition to a low-carbon economy is a complex one and involves thinking across systems. For example, Reed in Partnership is working with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult on a project to plan how the employment support sector can support disadvantaged groups in the labour force into battery manufacturing opportunities (potentially around 100,000 UK jobs by 2040) as they grow.

To find out more about the energy training that Reed in Partnership and our partner OEA provides, go to https://oeatraining.co.uk/courses/