Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Conclusion 11
Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector
Published 28 Apr 2023
Paragraph 60
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee Decarbonisation of the power sector All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The UK’s offshore wind sector is a success story. The Government has ambitious plans to scale up offshore wind deployment, maximising the potential of the UK’s natural resources. However, unless rapidly addressed, current bottlenecks in the process will stand in the way of the Government achieving its ambition for 50 GW of offshore wind to be deployed by 2030. While we commend the Government for the work being done to speed up the deployment of offshore wind, and to ensure local communities that host critical transmission infrastructure benefit from doing so, it is unfortunate that the Government is only now consulting in these areas.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector (HC 283), paragraph 60, 28 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 July 2023 (deadline 28 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation, planning annual reporting on power sector decarbonisation while setting out where it will not adopt specific proposals.
- On the call for a long-term delivery plan, the government "plans to report on its delivery, and overall plan to deliver the commitment, on an annual basis", and is strengthening its portfolio management approach.
- On a UK-wide onshore wind target, it states that setting one "would potentially undermine the flexibility needed" across the UK.
- On biomass, it has "no plans to remove support prior to 2027" for stations already supported, saying they "have a statutory right to their existing support".
- On Ofgem's duties, it is "content to amend" Ofgem's existing duty on greenhouse gases to refer specifically to the net zero targets in the Climate Change Act 2008.