Just two weeks in the past Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho gave a considerate – if marred by protest – speech setting out the general philosophy she is bringing to the duty of decarbonising the UK financial system.
Statistic interventions and purple tape are counterproductive, he argues, and innovation and market-led insurance policies symbolize a more practical route ahead. The UK faces a powerful selection within the subsequent election, Coutinho insisted, between accepting the uncertainty that’s “one of many key stimulants of danger and product improvement” and “an limitless -an more and more slim set of targets, the place authorities dictates output and costs. , and a web zero leviathan of central planning crushes our good enterprise financial system”.
A fortnight later, and after public lobbying from Tory MPs within the former True Blue protected seats of rural England, Coutinho determined that the leviathan of central planning ought to wake itself up and try to crush the following wave of photo voltaic farms.
No one expects ideological consistency from politicians anymore, particularly when they’re 20 factors down within the polls, however ought to they be shameless about it?
The very first thing to say is yesterday’s Written Ministerial Statement that explains the federal government’s stance on guiding planning for photo voltaic farms doesn’t quantity to a big change in coverage. As the photo voltaic trade has been fast to level out, the official planning steering for brand spanking new photo voltaic initiatives has been up to date by way of the National Policy Statement in January. This assertion merely reiterates the prevailing want to think about the influence of latest photo voltaic farms on high-grade agricultural land, decrease clustering of enormous initiatives, and prioritize photo voltaic improvement on buildings and brownfields. that land. The photo voltaic trade and UK planning committees know all about this. If there isn’t any upcoming election, this assertion won’t occur.
The second factor to speak about is the considerations of photo voltaic farm improvement and meals safety. Food safety within the UK has been undermined by a mix of local weather impacts, commerce boundaries, and the poor funds of many farms. Against such a backdrop, debates about land use will inevitably turn out to be extremely political, even when the results of the photo voltaic trade are minimal. Meanwhile, lengthy delays in grid connections incentivize photo voltaic builders to cluster initiatives collectively at grid factors the place connections could be obtained, which can depart some areas which is coping with a wave of planning functions on the identical time.
But these challenges are minor – particularly in comparison with the threats posed by local weather change and fossil gas imports – and are largely surmountable. The authorities’s choice to debate the ‘risk’ that photo voltaic farms pose to meals safety is little greater than a small a part of a cynical election that can undermine the UK’s power and local weather safety, whereas doing nothing to enhance meals safety.
The drawback is that planning coverage could not have modified in any significant approach (certainly some builders could have discovered it useful to make clear land grading), however the political sign despatched of buyers is as soon as once more that the UK authorities doesn’t welcome clear power. improvement. Far from choosing a market-led method, the central authorities is attempting to inform farmers and landowners what to do with their very own land in the event that they dare to calculate that they are going to get higher returns from internet hosting wind and photo voltaic farms than they will from farming. or elevating livestock. The UK’s efforts to decarbonise can be additional delayed and invoice payers must pay for dearer types of electrical energy era. The leviathan of central planning is alive, and it’s a Tory.
The proposal – defined in a put up on social media from Coutinho – that meals safety and power are in opposition and that meals safety ought to come first may even function a thread within the debate on this vital matter that goes past subsequent election. It’s a raffle designed to not solely avoid wasting Tory seats with 20,000-plus seat majorities in rural England, but in addition mobilize the opposition if (when?) a Labor authorities is fashioned. will attempt to fulfill his promise to push for radical planning reform that prioritizes the event of fresh power.
And all for what? You might block each photo voltaic farm within the planning pipeline and it will take up much less land than lined golf programs. The influence on nationwide meals safety is just too small to be burdened many occasions over by a beneath common yield. Meanwhile, the UK will discover itself more and more depending on fossil gas imports which push up power prices and carbon emissions.
A authorities that’s critical about meals safety will deal with encouraging a shift away from unhealthy meat and dairy heavy diets, investing in new various protein applied sciences, eliminating post-Brexit commerce boundaries and renegotiation of commerce offers that undermine native manufacturing, stabilize the local weather. sustainability, tackling meals waste, making certain that farm subsidy reforms work as deliberate, reassessing the knowledge of utilizing power crops for biofuels, and reviewing whether or not We actually have many golf programs. Preventing photo voltaic farm improvement can be a protracted, good distance down the listing, and will solely come after an efficient coverage to encourage extra photo voltaic improvement on buildings and brownfield land that given.
The authorities’s obvious crackdown on photo voltaic farm improvement has accomplished nothing to enhance meals safety, and to counsel in any other case is to take voters without any consideration. The nation is definitely at a “fork within the highway” in the case of clear power, as Coutinho described it. It’s simply that the highway supplied by the federal government is stuffed with potholes, coverage inconsistencies, and blatant politicking that threatens to undermine power and meals safety.
A model of this text first appeared as a part of BusinessGreen’s Overnight Briefing e mail, accessible to all BusinessGreen Intelligence members.
