here are our five big tests – Inside track

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband faces a legal deadline to publish a new climate action plan by the end of October after the High Court ruled last year that the previous government’s strategy was unlawful. The plan will chart a path to meet the UK’s carbon reduction targets over the next 15 years.

The stakes are high. Miliband is facing a slew of attacks from the right wing press who are disingenuously blaming clean energy policies for pushing up energy bills.

The government needs to be clear that its plan will ultimately cut household energy and fuel bills and put Britain at the forefront of the green industrial revolution.  If it gets the plan or its messaging wrong, it could further fuel press and populist efforts to weaponise the net zero agenda, undermining public support for climate action and leaving the country hooked on expensive, polluting, imported fossil fuels.

Green Alliance has set five tests for the new climate plan. These will ensure it really moves the dial on climate, while driving faster economic and social progress. If they are met, the plan will complement Labour’s growth and clean energy missions and help build a fairer, cleaner, greener UK.

1. Accelerate the transition to electric HGVs
Transport is the UK’s most polluting sector. It needs to do the heavy lifting to meet our carbon budgets. The government is taking action to make sure the UK stays Europe’s top market for electric cars with its new Electric Car Grant. Going electric can save drivers as much as £1,300 a year on running costs. As well as cars, the government should also follow through on its promise to cut the climate impact of heavy duty vehicles, like lorries, buses and coaches. Although lorries only make up 1.5 per cent of the vehicles on UK roads, they produce a disproportionately high 16 per cent of domestic transport emissions. Tackling this pollution is the next stop on the UK’s journey to clean transport. The climate plan should set out plans to encourage vehicle makers to sell more clean electric lorries, buses and coaches and support operators to make the switch.

2. Help more households access clean tech
The government is due to produce a new Warm Homes Plan this autumn. This must make it easier for a wider range of households to benefit from clean tech in homes. Research shows that new technology, like solar, batteries, home EV charging and heat pumps, can cut household energy and fuel bills. It can pay for itself within five years and deliver thousands of pounds of savings after. It’s good for wider society too, helping to balance the power grid and improving energy security. Installations are growing rapidly but high upfront costs are a barrier for many. The government needs to ensure grants, loans or mechanisms like salary sacrifice are available to more households, not just wealthier homeowners.

3. Support industry to weather the energy crisis and electrify
Global competition, trade tariffs and the fossil fuel price crisis are threatening jobs across the UK. The government must support UK businesses to overcome these challenges, so they and their workers can feel the long term benefits of electrification and the shift to clean energy. This should be through rapid introduction of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, rebalancing energy levies to offer more competitive power prices in the UK and improving the gas to electric price ratio to encourage uptake of tech like industrial heat pumps. An industrial decarbonisation strategy is also due, but the new climate plan should back it up it by replacing the closed Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and helping companies upgrade their grid connections to speed up industrial electrification. All government support given should be conditional on companies upskilling their workforces. A wider transition plan is needed, involving the workers and communities around industries like refining where a major transition is needed.

4. Double the rate of tree planting by 2030
Planting more trees keeps urban areas cool in heatwaves, protects from flooding and draws down and stores more carbon. This will be essential to balance the residual greenhouse gas emissions from harder to decarbonise sectors of the economy in decades to come, so it is vital that the pace of planting is ramped up now to allow trees time to establish. The government has been making progress in stepping up efforts, but the rate is far too slow and needs to double by 2030.

5. Make a bold, fair plan to show how everyone benefits
To maintain public support for the UK’s climate targets and challenge the anti-net zero narrative, this plan must be communicated clearly to show how everyone’s lives will improve, how it will be good for the economy and enhance national security. Fairness needs to be at the core of this message. If it is bold enough and if its measures are fairly spread across society, and not perceived to benefit some at the expense of others, it could deliver much to make lives better in Britain, including more affordable clean energy, warmer homes, cleaner air, better public transport, thriving nature and new good quality jobs.

If the climate plan meets our five tests in October it will show the government is serious about boosting growth, improving living standards and making the UK more energy secure through a rapid move to clean energy across our economy. The record forest fires this summer across Europe, from Edinburgh to Spain, Portugal and Greece, are yet another wake up call on the urgency to act. Most people in this country support more action. The government has the mandate to make this plan a bold blueprint for a greener, thriving, high tech Britain. We hope it passes the test.