Climate Committee report – the reaction

Lord Adair Turner, Chair of Committee on Climate Change

"With the carbon budgets in place, we now need to achieve a step change in the pace of emissions reduction. The Government needs to build on its "Low Carbon Transition Plan" and put in place a comprehensive delivery framework. What we have proposed is achievable and affordable but action needs to be taken now if we are to make our contribution to combating climate change."

Lord Nicholas Stern, lead author of Stern Review

"The Committee on Climate Change has produced a report that charts the way forward in monitoring targets, emissions and policies, and shows what will be required to achieve the necessary emissions reductions; it is a fine piece of work, which should be supported across the political spectrum and which will enhance the UK's role in fostering global understanding and agreement."

DECC spokeswoman

"Government recognises we need a step change to meet our carbon budgets, which is why we launched the Transition Plan to achieve this. We are on course to meet our 2020 targets, having already reduced emissions by 21% from 1990 levels. But we are not complacent, and are focused on active steps to bring on renewables, nuclear and clean coal, smarter energy use and a shift to low carbon right across the economy."

Greg Clark, Conservative shadow energy and climate change minister

"Following Friday's Ofgem report, this is yet another official warning about the consequences of the void in energy policy over the past 12 years. A merry-go-round of 15 energy ministers in 12 years has put Britain in a dire position to cope with the "trilemma" of keeping the lights on, keeping bills down and keeping to our emissions targets.

"As we said in our conference last week, a Conservative government would l aunch an emergency plan to rescue our energy policy within days of a General Election. Included in the plan is immediate authorisation of 5GW of clean coal capacity fitted with carbon capture and storage; a 'Green Deal' to give every household in the country £6,500 to upgrade the energy efficiency of our homes; immediate publication of the planning guidance needed for new nuclear power stations; and the right for every community hosting wind farms to keep for six years the business rates generated by them."

Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust

"With such an environmental imperative and commercial opportunity in front of us, it would be irresponsible and economically naive not to move as quickly as we can. Within seven years of Kennedy's famous speech, man was walking on the moon. A similar global and national race is now needed to deploy new low carbon technologies at home and abroad. This report confirms that a major step change in the decarbonisation of our economy is needed to ensure we remain on target to hit our 2050 commitments.

"Central to that will be the wholesale transformation of the country's power sector in the next ten years. A 'dash for wind' on a scale of the recent 'dash for gas' is needed to ensure our carbon targets are met and our nation's energy security is protected. The report is right to point out that this and other low carbon supply options will require major investment. Key to delivering that will be a policy framework that provides long-term investor confidence. The prize for the economy for getting it right will be immense. The Carbon Trust has calculated that offshore wind alone – our key non-fossil supply technology out to 2020 – will generate significant net economic benefit for UK plc of some £65 billion and create 220,000 jobs over the next 40 years."

Andy Atkins, executive director at Friends of the Earth

"The Committee is right to be concerned about government action on climate change. The Climate Change Act is a world-class piece of legislation, but the true test is the policies put in place to deliver its goals.

"Crucial strategies on fossil fuels, aviation and energy infrastructure, due out shortly, will demonstrate whether or not the Government has heeded the Committee's warnings. These National Policy Statements must clearly set out their carbon impacts and how they will deliver on the UK's carbon budgets - failure to do so will seriously undermine the Government's international leadership on climate change.

"Developing the UK's huge renewable energy potential and slashing energy waste will bring huge economic benefits, deliver new green jobs and put Britain at the forefront of securing a safer, cleaner future for us all."

Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council

"Our homes and buildings should be on the frontline in the battle against climate change, rising fuel prices and energy security. Yet current government policies will not deliver the necessary step change in green refurbishment.

"We need a strong regulatory signal that makes it clear to everyone that homes and commercial buildings will be required to meet higher levels of energy efficiency over time, which would create the conditions for a new green refurbishment market. In the commercial sector, we can’t do this without the full roll-out of Display Energy Certificates, which business has been crying out for.

"It's crucial we get legislation to bring forward schemes that reduce the up-front cost of capital for home-owners and businesses. Government expressed support for the "Pay As You Save" idea in the recent white paper, but it won't work without legislation and that doesn't appear to be in the pipeline.

"The beauty of this scheme is that it doesn't cost the Treasury a penny - it channels private-sector finance into our leaky properties, which leaves not only home owners and the environment better off, but creates thousands of green collar jobs. This report should provide the basis for government to take these much-needed steps."

Chris Davenport, energy and environmental services manager, at energy management firm McKinnon & Clarke

“EU Emissions Trading Scheme carbon permits have been given away too cheaply so far, and this has stunted the necessary growth of the carbon market while leaving profits in the hands of energy companies. A "floor" price is one way of achieving a stable environment to encourage investment in low carbon generation, but this can arguably be delivered by tighter restrictions on the issuing of new permits in future (these will already be cut by 1.7 per cent each year from 2013 to 2020 - but should it be more?) We would have concerns over whether the EU can deliver tighter targets, when the history of the scheme to date has been littered by generous national allowances for some and not for others - and intense lobbying of nation states to protect their own market's interests. An alternative would be a carbon tax rather than a "cap and trade" scheme, but the latter does have the potential to work.

"It is right to put pressure on the government to promote nuclear as a " necessary evil". The basic problem is the lack of an alternative viable, proven and production-ready low carbon technology that delivers reliable electricity generation around the clock, and regardless of the weather. The government needs to get the planning delays and bureaucracy sorted as a matter of urgency if these stations are going to be built on time, or risk the UK being the 'poor relation' in Western Europe, hooked on price-sensitive and often unreliable supplies of imported gas. There is literally no time to lose - the recession has bought us a couple of years, but at the rate the nuclear timescales are slipping back, there is no comfort zone."

Ben Warren, partner, renewable energy practice at Ernst & Young

"The report from the Committee on Climate Change certainly helps highlight the difficulties regulators and policy setters face when dealing with two major areas of potential market failure: security of supply and the decarbonisation of energy.

"The UK energy market has fundamentally been designed to drive out costs through competition, whilst the remit of Ofgem has been to protect the consumer from unnecessary price rises. Although significant levels of investment have flowed into the UK energy market from utilities and other investors, the UK remains vulnerable to a drive for gas-fired power - typically the lowest cost and quickest to deploy large-scale option - and is lagging behind many of its European and even developing nation counterparts in installing new renewable energy capacity. But is an overhaul of UK energy policy needed?

"On the one hand, there is certainly a case for more direct selective government intervention; the planning regime has proven woefully inadequate in addressing the needs for both conventional and renewable energy capacity. The transmission and distribution grid is also not suited to highly distributed generation and this results in considerable delays when generators seek to access the grid to export power, and frustratingly long lead-in times for the desperately needed upgrades to the system that has been inherited.

"However, particularly at a time when energy markets across the globe are competing for scarce capital investment, maintaining investor confidence is crucial and therefore any radical overhaul needs to be viewed with great caution.

"Intervention is needed, but it should be focused on enabling investment by the private sector through reducing unnecessary regulatory or policy risks, and accelerating the pace of change. Those interventions should focus not just on cost, but the wider needs of stakeholders to ensure security of supply, and deliver lower carbon energy. As Ofgem themselves have recently publicised, the changes required will come at a considerable cost to the consumer. Another important role of government will be to help energy consumers understand the likely cost increases, which in itself will help lead to behavioural change in reducing waste, and encouraging investment in self supply and energy efficiency. "