{"id":115306,"date":"2023-07-04T07:54:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T04:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/industry-urges-government-to-move-quickly-to-give-ofgem-net-zero-duty\/"},"modified":"2023-07-04T07:54:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T04:54:48","slug":"industry-urges-government-to-move-quickly-to-give-ofgem-net-zero-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/industry-urges-government-to-move-quickly-to-give-ofgem-net-zero-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry urges government to \u2018move quickly\u2019 to give Ofgem net zero duty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115306\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nMore than 40 leading figures from across the UK&#8217;s energy and investment sectors have urged the government to &#8220;move quickly&#8221; to give Ofgem a specific legal duty to support the net zero transition, &#8220;in light of the magnitude of the task&#8221; faced by Britain&#8217;s energy regulator as it works to help deliver a near fully decarbonised grid. In a letter to the government last month, 44 senior figures from firms such as Centrica, SSE, Kensa Group, and Royal London Asset Management, welcomed the government&#8217;s recent decision to grant Ofgem a mandate for supporting the transition to net zero as part of the Energy Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>The move was confirmed by the government last month, following years of calls from industry, MPs, and Ofgem itself for the watchdog to be given a clearer requirement for it to enable and accelerate the net zero transition. A specific net zero remit is widely seen as a critical step towards removing some of the barriers hampering the development of clean energy capacity and grid infrastructure in the UK, which experts have warned are jeopardising the government&#8217;s stretching renewable power capacity targets that include goals to secure 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 70GW of solar capacity by 2035.<\/p>\n<p>Industry insiders are also concerned that the current regulatory, grid, and planning regime is undermining efforts to meet the government&#8217;s target of delivering a net zero emission power system by 2035 &#8211; a goal that will become more demanding still if Labour is elected and honours its pledge to pull forward the target date to 2030. To date, Ofgem has had a general statutory duty to protect customer interests through reducing greenhouse gas emissions in electricity and gas supply. But the new amendment adds a specific legal duty for the regulatory to support the delivery of the UK&#8217;s 2050 net zero target and interim carbon budgets.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter sent late last month to Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps, the industry figures argued such a mandate for Ofgem would be critical to accelerating grid connections for renewables which currently face &#8220;huge delays&#8221; that could &#8220;threaten the UK&#8217;s ability to maximise the use of even existing renewables power generation&#8221;. As such, the letter urges the government to not just confirm the new remit for the watchdog, but also move as quickly as possible to &#8220;ensure Ofgem has sufficient capacity, resources, and technical expertise to deliver its revised mandate&#8221; in order to help it address &#8220;the interlocking challenges of the climate emergency, the increasing cost of living, and energy security&#8221;. Moreover, the letter calls on the government to simultaneously finalise its long-awaited Strategy and Policy Statement for the regulator &#8211; which is currently the subject of a public consultation &#8211; as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Signatories to the letter also include leading figures from E.ON, ScottishRenewables, and Good Energy, as well as from major investors such as Federated Hermes, Church of England Pensions Board, Phoenix Group, Nationwide Building Society, and Canada Life UK. Executives from green business association the Aldersgate Group, the Energy Institute, Thermal Storage UK, the Heat Pump Federation, the Heat Pump Association, and the Energy Saving Trust have also signed the letter. &#8220;Ofgem&#8217;s effective implementation of its net zero mandate will help to unlock vital investment in the low-cost, low-carbon energy system we are all working towards,&#8221; it states. &#8220;The sooner the new regulatory system is up and running, the better.&#8221; Ofgem has itself welcomed the move to update its mandate in line with net zero, which it said last month &#8220;sends a clear message that we must end our historic dependency on fossil fuels&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the letter, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), declined to provide any detailed timeline as to when the regulator&#8217;s mandate would be updated, nor whether it would provide further resources and support to help Ofgem deliver on its new legal duty. But a spokesperson for the Department stressed that &#8220;the regulator&#8217;s remit must also adapt so it is empowered to build the energy system of the future&#8221;. &#8220;That&#8217;s why we have clarified Ofgem&#8217;s duties to net zero while ensuring it retains an unwavering focus on its existing mandate on protecting consumers,&#8221; DESNZ said in a statement. &#8220;We look forward to seeing how this refresh will help deliver the change and investment needed to deliver cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy for Britain and grow the economy &#8211; enshrined into the most significant piece of energy legislation in a generation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The new comes amid growing concern over the government&#8217;s stance on new onshore wind farms, with media reports over the weekend suggesting significant changes to existing planning rules &#8211; which have effectively blocked new onshore turbines in England since 2015 &#8211; are now unlikely. The government has been consulting for several months over potentially relaxing planning rules to enable more onshore wind projects to be built in England, having previously signalled it would lift the &#8216;de facto&#8217; ban on new onshore wind farms in England following a backbench rebellion from &#8216;pro-growth&#8217; Tory MPs last autumn. But according to reports in The Observer yesterday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is increasingly fearful of angering Tory voters who oppose turbines in their constituencies and as such is said to be considering only minimal changes to current planning rules. The current rules, which ensure new projects can be blocked if there is a single complaint, have resulted in just two onshore wind turbines being installed in England over the past two years with even war-torn Ukraine building more wind capacity in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Business Green <\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/industry-urges-government-to-move-quickly-to-give-ofgem-net-zero-duty\/\">Industry urges government to &#8216;move quickly&#8217; to give Ofgem net zero duty<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[575,958,2278,6663,10612],"class_list":["post-115306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-government","tag-industry","tag-netzero","tag-ofgem"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}