Sir Keir Starmer was told that his goal to have a Net Zero electricity system by 2030 would be very expensive. Sir Keir, who leads the Labour Party, wants to make the UK’s electricity grid free from carbon emissions by the beginning of the next decade as part of his plans if he becomes Prime Minister.
A new report showed that this plan would cost £116 billion more. According to the report by Aurora Energy Research, done for the Policy Exchange thinktank, Sir Keir’s plan would need an extra investment of £15.6 billion every year until 2030. Additionally, it would require an additional spending of £4.4 billion per year from 2031 to 2035.
The report was released while Sir Keir visited north Wales with Vaughan Gething, the new Welsh First Minister. During their visit, they discussed their party’s promise to create a publicly-owned clean energy company called Great British Energy. Sir Keir confirmed that this company would invest in the UK’s floating offshore wind industry.
The Policy Exchange report compared Labour’s plan for 2030 to make the electricity grid carbon-free with the regular progress of policies and markets in the UK’s power sector. They also compared it with the Conservative Party’s plan to achieve a Net Zero electricity grid by 2035, costing £104.6 billion more over 11 years.
The thinktank said that making the grid carbon-free by 2030 was very different from doing it by 2035. They said that Labour’s plan would need a lot of extra money, and there would be problems with getting enough materials like steel, glass, lead, copper, and aluminum. They also said there would be problems with planning.
Iain Mansfield, the director of Policy Exchange’s research, said, “It’s just not possible to make the power grid carbon-free by 2030. Even if the government could find the extra £93 billion needed, we couldn’t build enough renewable energy sources fast enough.”
The Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho said, “Energy experts have shown the real costs of Labour’s crazy green promises. It’s almost a hundred billion pounds extra just for them to play politics with Britain’s energy. They need to say how they will pay for it.”
However, Labour disagreed with the report and the Policy Exchange figures. They said they have different plans to switch to clean energy faster. They also pointed out that the Conservative Party‘s goal is a 95 percent carbon-free electricity system by 2030.
A Labour spokesperson said, “The government has not been on track to meet its clean power goals after 14 years. We can’t have five more years of the Conservative Party doing nothing. Our plan will secure Britain’s energy with investments in clean power, creating jobs and boosting our national security.”
Before he visited North Wales, Sir Keir promised that Great British Energy would help reduce Britain’s dependence on energy from other countries. He said that Wales could be a leader in new offshore wind technology.
Sir Keir said, “In a world where energy is used as a weapon, Britain needs to control its energy. After 14 years of the Conservative Party bowing down to fossil fuel dictators, our plan will give us control of our energy and create jobs. We have to work with Wales to make this happen.”
He also said, “A big part of a modern British economy is having secure, British-made energy. This is a basic duty of the government, and it’s wrong for the Conservative Party to oppose it.”
