Friday 10 July 2020

Podcast: Energy Institute President Steve Holliday on the state of the sector

Almost 90% of energy professionals say the UK is currently off track for net zero by 2050 - but Steve Holliday, President of the Energy Institute is here to tell us what needs to happen to turn this around.

The former CEO of National Grid spoke to future Net Zero News Editor Jonny Bairstow following the release of the Energy Institute’s latest Energy Barometer report, which surveyed more than 350 UK professionals from across the sector.

The results show more than half believe the country is off track for even the interim 2030 decarbonisation target unless "urgent and decisive" policy action is taken and reveal workers believe slow progress on tackling emissions could undermine the UK’s credibility as the host of the COP26 discussions in Glasgow next year.

The survey also identifies galvanising increased emission reduction ambition from other countries as the foremost challenge for the UK as the host of the climate conference.

Mr Holliday said: “The energy efficient retrofit of housing is identified as the number one route both to recovery and net zero – energy efficiency has come up every year and it’s no surprise it’s here up again – absolutely, really loud and clear, it’s the biggest issue.

“We’re clearly not on track to our 2030 interim target at the moment, I believe the energy professions are absolutely right – this is the decade of delivery, this is the decade we really need to get going, if we continue to emit carbon at the rate that we are, whatever action we take in the 2030s and 2040s, we’ll have used up too much of our carbon budget by then, so we really need to take action this decade.”

Listen to the full podcast to find out more...