Net Zero Race As Urgent as Covid Vaccine Hunt: Sir Patrick Vallance

Written by Richard Eldred on June 5, 2024. Posted in Current News

Former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has given his nod of approval to Labour’s green energy agenda, warning that achieving Net Zero should be tackled with the same urgency and speed as the race for a Covid vaccine. The Times has the story.

In a politically sensitive intervention for a former senior Government official Vallance, who stepped down as Chief Scientific Adviser last year, backed Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to decarbonise Britain’s electricity supplies by 2030.

This is five years earlier than the present Government’s target, and the Conservatives have attacked the promise as “mad, bad and dangerous”.

Writing in the Times, Vallance, who became a household name during the pandemic and was a key figure in the vaccine rollout programme, said the pledge was achievable and could be “done fast”.

He also appeared to criticise Conservative plans to delay the implementation of some Net Zero policies. He warned: “If we choose to go slowly others will provide the answers and we will ultimately end up buying the solutions.”

Last year, 33% of the U.K.’s total electricity was generated from fossil fuels, and under present plans this will be replaced entirely, or offset, by renewable energy by 2035.

Labour has pledged to bring that target forward by five years arguing that doing so will reduce bills, create new jobs and boost economic growth.

The Conservatives and some energy experts have questioned the viability of this plan, arguing that at a time when electricity consumption is rising, moving too fast would increase the costs to consumers and rely on buying up infrastructure from countries such as China.

Vallance said that he did not underestimate the technological and logistical challenges behind the pledge, but insisted that it could be done and would be in the national interest.

“I am often asked which of Britain’s many pressing public policy challenges need a vaccine-style approach,” he said.

“I believe that one such priority is the urgent need to end the era of excessive carbon emissions, high energy bills and energy insecurity by accelerating the Net Zero transition to clean, homegrown energy.

“With a determined effort using currently available technologies and those that are close to being deployable, a clean power system by 2030 is achievable.”

See more here Daily Sceptic 

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