Pathways to Net Zero

Understanding the options and implications of different pathways to reach net zero will be essential to help policymakers explain the trade-offs to their constituents.

The skills that get a Member of Parliament to Westminster are usually entirely unrelated to their roles once they are elected.

Having been in that situation myself, I can vouch for how overwhelming the first months are and how terrifyingly unprepared I was. It certainly wasn’t a policy specialism that got me elected.

In fact, it is a sub-set of MPs who even have an interest in policy and yet, as soon as they arrive, MPs are bombarded with policy demands and asked for their views on anything from the future of the water industry to the Middle East conflict.

The issues facing this new intake are unusually complex and problematic – and none more so than the 2050 net zero target.

It touches almost every department and policy area. It is full of difficult (for that read ‘unpopular’) decisions for new Ministers.

Governments are famously siloed within their departments and portfolios, but so is industry. It is hard to take a big step back to see the big picture when so many day-to-day decisions need to be made.

But without that, and without understanding where the energy we use today comes from, what we use it for, and what some of the options are for decarbonising it or replacing it with low- and zero-carbon alternatives, we are unlikely to reap the enormous benefits to people and the economy.

Palace Yard has brought together leading multinational businesses involved in energy and infrastructure (Jacobs, ?rsted, Centrica and National Gas) as well as Make UK, the country’s largest association of manufacturers who form our supply chains, to help MPs, new and longer standing, see the bigger picture.

Over the coming months, we will provide short and simple briefings on the energy we use, where it comes from, and what the options (and implications for those options) are.

For example, if we want nuclear to play a role in net zero by 2050, then decisions need to be taken now on building big nuclear power stations. If that doesn’t happen, then other technologies like hydrogen will need to be ramped up.

If we want to electrify more of our industrial processes, then we need to expand the electricity grid and ensure that intermittent wind and solar generators are supported by fuels that can fill the gaps on calm and overcast days or during the night.

Getting net zero right will unlock economic potential and investment opportunities. It will help our energy security in an increasingly dangerous world – and keeping bills as low as possible is a top priority for every MP.

But to make sure that the UK can realise those opportunities means taking difficult decisions and making the case for them to the electorate, and that is made easier by understanding the arguments, trade-offs and facts in the energy debate.

We are looking forward to getting started as soon as MPs return from their summer recess in September and hope you will help us with ideas, useful reports and data that will help build energy knowledge among the very people who will be making important decisions on how best to reach net zero by 2050.