GWPF welcomes delay to UK energy white paper

Astronomical Net Zero costs no longer affordable 

London, 12 November: The Global Warming Policy Forum has welcomed reports that the government is to delay its energy white paper. 

Ministers are said to feel that costly projects envisaged before the Covid crisis may no longer be affordable.

The government announcement coincides with the publication of a new estimate of the cost of decarbonising the UK's housing stock. According to GWPF's Andrew Montford:

Decarbonising the housing stock alone will cost nearly £1 trillion pounds, with another £1 trillion to be paid in higher energy bills by 2050. That's around £50,000 per household. If the government is genuinely considering to slow the plans to decarbonise the economy then homeowners will have dodged a bullet."

And GWPF director Benny Peiser is calling on Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to publish a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis for the government's Net Zero plans: 

In recent weeks, new research has shown that the cost of offshore windfarms is much higher than previously thought. The bill for electrification of the UK is therefore going to rise steeply. In light of the deepening Covid crisis, the Treasury should prioritise a comprehensive Net Zero cost-benefit analysis."

The GWPF costsheet 'Cost of Decarbonising Housing' can be downloaded here.