UK Election Results: What Do They Mean for Sustainability & Green Energy?

July 2024

Sustainability & Smart Cities

Cara Malone

Senior Research Analyst

Labour's election victory comes at a pivotal time for the global sustainability sector. A newfound urgency about the climate crisis, as well as rising energy costs, means that governments, businesses, and individual are looking to reduce their emissions output and move towards a 'net zero' society.

This new government, then, is under pressure to place sustainability and clean energy at the heart of its policymaking; not just when launching green initiatives, but in everything it aims to achieve. 

The Labour Party identified several key pledges surrounding clean energy and sustainability within its manifesto. These included the following:

• Working with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030, as well as investing in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and marine energy, and long-term energy storage
• Ensuring that new policymaking reflects commitments to reach net zero and carbon budgets
• Supporting the introduction of a carbon border adjustment mechanism
• Phase out ICE vehicles by 2030, restoring an abandoned pledge by the previous government

These pledges contain a lot of potential improvements to how the UK tackles sustainability and the larger climate crisis. However, these are big commitments, and a lot will need to happen to achieve them.

To this end, we've identified several recommendations that the new government could integrate into its new strategy.

Improving EV Charging Infrastructure

At present, there is a lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support the increasing number of electric vehicles. In addition, the current charging network is highly fragmented, hindering EV adoption amongst consumers.

In order to avoid this confusion, the government must improve efforts to standardise elements such as charging connectors, and standardising access to chargers via contactless payments or aggregated apps. Reducing the level of fragmentation throughout the EV charging landscape will improve the charging infrastructure and therefore encourage EV adoption; reducing the need for ICE vehicles.

Supporting Renewable Energy Technologies

At present, the UK is off track in regards to meeting net zero, therefore it is vital for the Labour government to begin acting on this as soon as possible. One of the best ways to achieve this is through the use of renewable energy technologies, such as wind and solar power. The Labour government is taking steps to increase windfarm construction by announcing that it is lifting the de facto ban that is currently in place. This is a step in the right direction for increasing renewable energy technology, however, there are still a number of hurdles that it will need to overcome, such as removing the number of planning obstacles involved in new projects, and ensuring that the grid is set up to receive new supplies.

One action that could be taken by the new government in improving energy sources is increasing the requirement for carbon emission reduction in houses. At present, it is only stated that energy-saving measures need to be included in new builds, however, some houses are still being built with gas boilers and without solar panels. Alongside this, retrofitting older houses with improved insulation would also significantly decrease energy use; reducing pressure on the grid.

Encouraging MaaS to Reduce the Public's Reliance on Private Vehicles

At present, there are major infrastructure and public transport issues holding MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) back from its full potential especially in rural areas. In the UK, this is a mixture between having fragmentation of public transport networks that can be connected combined with limited regulations in place which will be beneficial for MaaS. Overregulation can hinder development and slow the market, while under-regulation can limit the wider adoption of new concepts and technologies, therefore, it is important for the government to get the correct level of regulation.

Critically, the new UK government must consider the optimal way of improving the current sustainability efforts through investment into renewable energy technologies and electric vehicle infrastructure, in order to support future regulations and initiatives. Given there needs to be reductions in the production of fossil fuel-based energy to reach net zero, the new government must act now, given the slow rate of progress in the energy market.