In response to today’s government announcements on energy and net zero, Chris Richards, Director of Policy at the Institution of Civil Engineers said:

“In the face of calls for certainty and urgency from the Climate Change Committee, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Infrastructure Commission in recent weeks the UK government has chosen today to largely restate existing policy and missed the opportunity to set out the additional detail needed to enable sectors to ramp up the transition to net-zero.

 “There are still not enough clear policy frameworks, disparate funding pots, and questions on technology choices are still unanswered.

 “Even the Government admits that today’s measures don’t go far enough – they expect to miss the 6th Carbon Budget.

 “As the ICE said at the Budget, with other countries incentivising huge levels of investment into new technology and the infrastructure needed to support the net zero transition, global competition for talent and resources has never been greater – without a similar degree of certainty the UK risks getting left behind.”