| answer text |
<p>This Government is committed to meeting net zero by 2050, and in 2019, the Government
became the first major economy in the world to have legislated for a net zero target
to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. We agree
with the Committee on Climate Change’s view on the importance of a diverse mix of
power generation sources to achieve that with renewables providing the majority of
our electricity by 2050 alongside firm low carbon power from sources such as nuclear,
and gas or biomass generation with carbon capture and storage.</p><p>The Government
has introduced many initiatives to increase the supply of renewable energy production
in the UK and with this support, carbon emissions have reduced by 42%, while the economy
has grown by 73% since 1990. We have also seen rapid deployment of solar PV over the
last 8 years, with over 99% of the UK’s solar PV capacity deployed since May 2010
and half of the world’s offshore wind deploying in the UK. We have committed up to
£557m of annual support for future Contracts for Difference, providing developers
with the confidence they need to invest in bringing forward new projects and we are
supporting our world-leading offshore wind industry through the 2019 sector deal.</p><p>In
order to support smaller scale renewable electricity generation, the Government introduced
the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) on 1 January, which gives small scale low-carbon
electricity generators, such as homes with solar panels, the right to be paid for
the renewable electricity they export to the grid. Unlike the previous Feed-in Tariff
scheme, the SEG is a market-driven mechanism. It paves the way to projects being deployed
without subsidies.</p><p>The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) supports the transition
to low-carbon heating in the UK, helping generate renewable heat for schools, hospitals
and more than 12,000 social housing properties. The scheme is designed to bridge the
gap between the cost of fossil fuel heat sources and renewable heat alternatives through
financial support for owners of participating installations. The RHI helps to sustain
and build the supply-chains needed to deliver our aspirations for renewable heat in
2020 and beyond</p><p>We are working to develop a new policy framework for the long-term
decarbonisation of heat. We have committed to publishing a policy roadmap in summer
2020. This will set out the programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions
in the first half of 2020 on how we achieve mass transition to low carbon heating.</p><p>
</p>
|
|
