Electrotechnical and engineering services trade body ECA has welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to legislate for a UK net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
ECA is now urging the Government to commit to meaningful and swift action to help meet their own ambitious target.
Paul Reeve, ECA Director of CSR, comments, “This is the first step on what we hope will be the UK’s journey to Net Zero Carbon. No-one should expect the feat of resolving the UK’s carbon footprint to be anything other than daunting, but the Government has issued a truly remarkable response to the ‘zero carbon’ challenge set out by the CCC in May.”
He continues, “The task ahead is immense: the UK is drastically short of the infrastructure, supply and installation capacity needed to introduce low-carbon building heating at scale. There are also major ‘low carbon’ skills gaps across building design, construction and installation. We also need to ensure that whatever happens in the years ahead delivers the quality and performance necessary for whole-life low carbon buildings.”
Luke Osborne, ECA Energy Solutions Advisor, notes, “It is great that the outgoing Prime Minister is finally taking a positive step in committing to tackling climate change. However, it must be noted that any recourse to ‘carbon credits’ could be used as a backdoor, allowing the UK to buy success while relying on action from developing nations.
“The Government, therefore, needs to focus on reducing UK domestic emissions as much as possible, through measures such as decarbonisation of the grid, and the full electrification of public transport.”