This decision will have to be based on both the environmental credentials of each source and the potential financial gains to be made, as the country looks to balance economic viability with environmental responsibility. In order to deliver this meaningful change, the UK will have to decide which energy sources to invest in. Utility-scale wind and community-scale solar By instead encouraging tangible changes to the UK’s energy mix, there is hope that the government’s programmes will help deliver meaningful change. They further suggest that a general focus on net-zero as the be all and end all of climate targets could actually prove to be unhelpfully broad. The researchers argue that an emphasis on the latter approach could ultimately yield few meaningful impacts, as these technologies do not address the fundamental need to replace fossil fuel-based electricity generation with renewable-based electricity generation. In a 2019 research paper published in Frontiers in Climate, researchers from Lancaster University in the UK highlighted a fundamental difference between approaches designed to reduce reliance on fossil fuel-based electricity and approaches that aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so-called “negative emissions technologies”, which collectively make up the idea of targeting net-zero emissions. This emphasis on alternative sources of energy could help the UK overcome what some consider to be the limitations of net-zero targets as a concept. According to Bruce Wen, senior business consultant at consultancy firm BJSS, the country will need more electricity to support infrastructure and energy consumption in several industries. The government has also targeted a number of more specific industries and practices as it aims to improve the country’s environmental performance across all sectors. The UK committed £2bn towards its Green Homes Grant, which will subside the costs of “energy saving home improvements”, alongside £191m towards the Sustainable Innovation Fund to encourage technological development in the sector. On a macro level, this includes a number of significant investments in renewable energy and what the government calls a “green economy recovery” in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK is working towards a number of ambitious clean energy targets, headlined by the government’s goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. View All Ambitious and meaningful targets
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