Energy Saving Trust welcomes UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy

Energy Saving Trust welcomes the publication of the UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy that sets out a roadmap to address the climate emergency and support the UK achieving a net zero society by 2050.

As the UK prepares to host COP26, this strategy shows how the UK will meet its decarbonisation targets through ambitious policies for action in the coming years.

It brings together the UK’s decarbonisation policies and recognises the importance of a holistic approach that identifies the dependencies between departments and sectors. While acknowledging that the cost of inaction will be far greater than the investment required, the strategy also highlights that early action to achieve net zero offers multiple opportunities to strengthen the UK economy and level up.

Alongside the Heat and Buildings Strategy, we welcome the government’s commitment to supporting society’s most vulnerable through energy bill discounts and insulation upgrades. This will phase out our reliance on the use of fossil fuels and protect people from volatile fuel prices. We are pleased with the ambition to create a government-led home energy advice journey, supported by enhanced sustainable energy advice for England. We have seen how effective advice provision in Scotland and Wales has been in supporting households to make informed choices on home energy efficiency improvements.

The transport commitments in the strategy set the pace for change in leading the way to net zero. Transport is the single biggest contributor to carbon emissions in the UK, yet a vital part of people’s lives.

Adopting greater active travel in our everyday lives is key. Therefore, it is good to see a commitment on this with the ambition for half of all journeys in towns and cities to be completed by either walking or cycling by 2030 and £2 billion of funding allocated to achieve this goal.

Access to electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints remains a barrier to greater EV adoption and so it is also good to see government commit to additional funding to increase the rollout.

We continue to look forward to collaborating with government over the coming months and years to develop delivery programmes to help them achieve the commitments outlined in the strategy.