Looking ahead: The race to zero
05 January 2021
Happy New Year and welcome to the January issue of DPA! As per New Year tradition, I thought I’d start off this year by looking to the future. In my first-ever column, I discussed the positive effects of the pandemic on the environment and celebrated Britain’s milestone in reaching two months of coal-free power generation.
However, I pointed out that, whilst this was an impressive achievement, “the government will need to put in place a clear and practicable plan if we are to meet our net-zero targets”.
November 2020 finally saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlining such a plan to set the green industrial revolution in motion and help to rebuild the economy.
The plan identifies ten key areas for sustainable development:
1. Offshore wind: Producing enough offshore wind to power every home, quadrupling how much we produce to 40GW by 2030, supporting up to 60,000 jobs.
2. Hydrogen: Working with industry aiming to generate 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes, and aiming to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.
3. Nuclear: Advancing nuclear as a clean energy source, across large scale nuclear and developing the next generation of small and advanced reactors, which could support 10,000 jobs.
Read the full article in the January issue of DPA