Chris Skidmore speaking at the launch of the Net Zero Review in January 2023
Chris Skidmore MP builds on Net Zero Review with new initiative aimed at rallying all UK political parties to place net zero at heart of next General Election
The government's net zero tsar Chris Skidmore MP has today launched a new initiative aimed at fleshing out proposed decarbonisation policies across a host of critical sectors of the economy, in a bid to encourage all UK political parties to place climate action at the heart of their pitch to voters ahead of the next General Election.
Launched this morning, the Mission Zero Coalition builds on the Conservative MP's 340-page Net Zero Review, which was published in January and set out 129 recommendations to government designed to ensure the UK moves "further and faster" to decarbonise its economy.
Skidmore said the new coalition would take in the views of green businesses leaders, community groups, local councils, academics, and other stakeholders as it works to deliver 10 separate reports on how to decarbonise specific sectors of the economy and add more policy detail to the recommendations contained in the Net Zero Review.
The coalition initially plans to establish four 'networks' - a local network, an industry network, a buildings network, and a solar network - each of which would be tasked with drawing up a report on their policy area for publication in the autumn, Skidmore explained.
A further six networks would then be added to the group, so as to eventually mirror the 10 ‘missions' set out in Skidmore's Net Zero Review. As such reports are planned in areas such as grid and infrastructure, onshore wind, nuclear, the circular economy, nature, and innovation.
Speaking at a launch event for the Mission Zero Coalition this morning, Skidmore - who is standing down as an MP at the end of his current Parliamentary term - said the aim was to "deliver the necessary policy detail" to take forward the broad recommendations contained Net Zero Review.
In doing so, Skidmore said he hoped to "help inform the further policy development that is essential ahead of the General Election", which he warned was potentially less than 600 days away, and which would likely determine whether the UK achieves or misses its 2030 climate targets.
The Mission Zero Coalition, he said, would form "a powerful collective of local and regional authorities, organisations and businesses, academia, both in our university and FE sectors, community groups and charities, who want to come together to provide that long term strategic thinking that our country needs to deliver net zero".
"While I want Britain to lead on net zero, as we have done in the past, I also want to ensure that the future policy focus must be on what Britain's future role will be when it comes to the green economy and our industries for the future," he added.
"The prize, if we wish to seize it, is to both establish leadership in technologies, but also leadership in regulations, standards and legislation, that can be exported abroad. This both helps encourage inward international investment in the UK, but critically will also allow UK technologies, UK companies, and UK professional services to be exported abroad."
Last week Chancellor Jeremy Hunt promised the government would provide a "fulsome response" to Skidmore's Net Zero Review in the spring or early summer, while the government is also under pressure to deliver further green policy support as part of its upcoming Spring Budget and its revamped Net Zero Strategy which the High Court has ordered Ministers to deliver by the end of March.
However, there is increasing concern among green businesses that the UK risks falling behind in the global race to develop net zero industries due to a lack of requisite policy support from the government, which now stands in stark contrast to the $369bn-worth of clean tech subsidies offered through the US Inflation Reduction Act and the green industrial strategies being pursued in response by the EU and China.
Skidmore insisted "the opportunity is still there for the UK to lead the world on further net zero policies", but that the current and next government needed to act quickly to grasp it with a clear, joined-up, long-term policy platform, targets and regulatory support.
In particular, he warned against "siloed" efforts to decarbonise industry in different UK regions, and reiterated his call for a national insulation drive to decarbonise homes and businesses, lamenting that "Britain has become the poor man of Europe when it comes to energy efficiency".
As such, the MP said he would be using his remaining time in Parliament to lobby all UK political parties to ensure they place climate action and net zero at the heart of their election manifestos, in order to ensure the UK accelerates its pace on decarbonisation during the remainder of the crucial decade.
"The net zero clock is ticking," he said. "Whoever forms the next government, will be the government that either succeeds or fails in delivering that UK international NDC by 2030; they will be the government that either succeeds or fails to deliver the ZEV mandate, the boiler mandate, the heat pump target, the SAF mandate, and so many other commitments that we can either prioritise to deliver in time, or allow to fall by the wayside.
"The next General Election then, will not just be critical for tackling climate change, it will be the Election by which all future climate commitments will be judged."
The launch comes on the same day as the UK Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change published a wide-ranging policy paper ahead of the Spring Budget calling on Ministers to introduce more ambitious decarbonisation policies on multiple fronts. It also comes as the renewables industry today warned Ministers not to renege on their promise to lift the de facto ban on new onshore wind farms, amidst fears proposed changes to planning rules would make little practical difference for onshore wind developers that currently face new projects being routinely blocked.
