Recently, Josh Bullard wrote in detail about the UK’s Net Zero transition for ‘Building’; exploring the pathway to Net Zero by 2050; the opportunities and shortfalls, and what could be standing in the way of achieving this ambitious goal. 

An interesting article, Bullard highlights the huge milestone’s in the UK’s clean energy transition - for example, the £1.5bn clean energy auction and the UK becoming the first G7 nation to stop using coal-fired power, thanks to green energy - as well as the opportunities afforded to us by nuclear power. 

And, although the UK has indeed come a long way in our Net Zero journey, Bullard also reminds readers that there’s still a long way left to go to meet these ambitious targets fully and successfully by the desired deadline, leaving us to question whether the UK will in fact meet this deadline or whether - despite the government’s best efforts - it may already be too late? 

Will the UK meet ambitious Net Zero targets or is it already too late? 

Particularly when it comes to wind and solar power, the UK is thriving and offshore wind opportunities are rapidly growing, backed significantly by government funds and initiatives; the latest clean energy auction funding 131 wind, solar and tidal power schemes that could eventually power 11 million homes.

What’s more, the launch of Labour’s ‘publicly owned energy company’ GB Energy is expected to create significant opportunities for the renewable energy sector - the government’s most recent [autumn] budget pledging £125 million to the company to establish and support its early operations, where intentions are to invest heavily in renewable energy initiatives over the next 5 years.

With this, in electric vehicles, the UK government successfully installed over 2,000 EV charging stations throughout the UK in July this year alone and have pledged another £200 million to install many more. 

But, whatever the progress made, there are still significant gaps in the renewable energy sector, in funding, in practical support and opportunities, and in policies.

For example, the most recent budget also pledged £3.9 billion to support Track-1 Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage projects across 2025 - 2026 as part of a broader £20 billion funding commitment to CCUS initiatives.

And, whilst this may seem significant, in reality, this only translates to support for a very small amount of projects going forward. 

What’s more, there is no viable market for green carbon; it remains difficult to sell the carbon captured from renewable energy projects onto other sectors for use in place of fossil fuel derived carbon, and extremely expensive to transport and store this carbon once captured. Alongside this, CCUS technologies are incredibly costly to implement and often drive up project costs to staggering amounts. 

Not to mention the issues with EfW and waste incinerators negatively impacting the waste sector, such as the inclusion of EfW plants in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETSUK), driving up operational costs and deincentivising the sector, and the well-documented issues experienced with the National Grid, leaving new renewable projects unable to connect to the grid for 10 - 15 years, leaving the industry at a standstill.

For the UK to successfully and fully achieve their ambitious Net Zero goals, more needs to be done to open up opportunities for all renewable energy projects, including EfW plants and waste treatment/recycling projects, including MRFs and AD plants; CCUS must become a viable and attractive solution for investors and developers to implement in projects, and the National Grid needs significant updates.

And, whilst some progress has and is already being made to improve the National Grid, such as the transformative TMO4+ regulations, on and offshore wind is enjoying significant government funding, and some CCUS projects are enjoying government backing over the next few years, we’re left with the question: is it too little too late?