The UK government is asking for businesses, local governments, academia and the British public to respond to a net-zero review detailing their biggest barriers to decarbonisation and where they need support to make greener choices.
Last week, the government’s Growth Plan 2022 was published in conjunction with the fiscal event, in which it announced it has asked Chris Skidmore MP to chair an independent review “into how to deliver our net-zero commitment while maximising economic growth and investment, supporting energy security and minimising the costs borne by businesses and consumers”.
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The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has now commissioned this independent review of the government’s approach to net zero, to ensure it is “pro-business and pro-growth”.
It also wants to explore how a net-zero economy will support UK energy security – by strengthening UK energy production – and affordability for consumers and businesses.
The BEIS said: “The review will assess the economic co-benefits associated with different policies and how we can drive down the cost curve for net-zero technologies. It will consider innovative approaches and ways of delivering our target that ensure the government maximises the economic opportunities presented by net zero.”
The call for evidence has overarching questions that can be responded to and then questions are also divided by stakeholder group.
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Overarching questions ask for feedback on how the government can support businesses and consumers as they decarbonise and where priorities should be.
In the section specifically for businesses, the review asks for evidence around growth benefits and opportunities, impact of decarbonisation on businesses, barriers for using renewable energy or new technologies and estimations around green jobs.
The public are asked to share their personal actions to reduce carbon footprints and the barriers around this. They are also asked what they think is not working well with regards to measures being put in place to reach net zero.
Local governments, communities and organisations are asked to share their successful place-based, net-zero projects and how funding schemes can be improved to make it easier to deliver net zero.
Finally, academia are asked to share their knowledge on the benefits of technology and innovation.
Responses should be sent to netzeroreview@beis.gov.uk by 27 October 2022. The full list of questions can be found here.
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