Post: UK general election 2024: energy pledges

UK general election 2024: energy pledges

The energy sector will be hugely impacted by the upcoming UK general election. From the Labour Party’s plan to establish Great British (GB) Energy, or the Conservatives’ plans to scale up nuclear power, policies detailed in party manifestos may have a direct and significant impact on the sector if introduced.

Here we take a look at the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrat Party’s key pledges of relevance to the energy sector.

Net zero

Conservative Party:

• Commit to achieving net zero emissions by 2050
• Guarantee a parliamentary vote on the next stage of the net zero pathway
• Pledge no new green levies or charges, including road pricing schemes or frequent flyer levies

Labour Party:

• Support the introduction of a carbon border adjustment mechanism

Liberal Democrats:

• Propose a clear and stable roadmap to net zero
• Provide more advice to companies on cutting emissions
• Implement a carbon border adjustment mechanism for high-emission products
• Support carbon capture and storage, low-carbon cement and steel production processes, and zero-carbon industrial clusters

Renewables

Conservative Party:

• triple offshore wind capacity
• democratic consent for onshore wind projects
• contract payments for offshore wind energy firms in disadvantaged UK areas
• creation of two carbon capture and storage clusters
• solar power developments and with £1.1B investment into the green industries growth accelerator

Labour Party:

• creation of GB Energy, a public clean power company, funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas
• introduce a National Wealth Fund to boost clean energy investments
• double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030
• investments in carbon capture, storage, hydrogen, and marine energy
• a ‘British jobs’ bonus, allocating £500M annually from 2026

Liberal Democrats:

• remove restrictions on new solar and wind power
• support investment in tidal and wave power
• advocate for a sustainable supply chain for renewable energy technology in collaboration with European countries
• empower local authorities to develop local renewable electricity strategies
• ensure community benefit funds receive a fair share from local renewable projects

Fossil fuels

Conservative Party:

• develop new gas power stations to support renewables
• maintains investment allowances for the oil and gas sector
• legislate for annual licensing rounds for North Sea oil and gas production
• uphold the moratorium on fracking

Labour Party:

• no new oil and gas exploration licenses and no new coal licenses
• ban fracking permanently
• recognises the role of oil and gas in the energy mix, with a phased transition for North Sea workers
• close loopholes in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies
• retain the energy security investment mechanism and maintain a strategic reserve of gas power stations

Liberal Democrats:

• end fossil fuel subsidies and maintain a ban on fracking
• ban new coal mines
• support a ‘just transition’ for workers in the oil and gas industry
• one-off windfall tax on the ‘super-profits’ of oil and gas producers

Nuclear Power

Conservative Party:

• support nuclear power as essential for meeting net zero targets by 2050
• secure the nuclear sector’s long-term future, extend the life of existing plants, and ensure new nuclear projects

Labour Party:

• scale up nuclear power, approving new fleets of small modular reactors within the first 100 days
• halve the approval time for new nuclear reactors
• build a new power plant and support existing projects by extending the lifetime of existing plants

Grid infrastructure

Conservative Party:

• accelerate energy infrastructure construction, implementing recommendations from the Winser Review
• reduce grid connection waiting times

Labour Party:

• upgrade national transmission infrastructure and increase distributed production capacity through a local power plant

Liberal Democrats:

• lower access costs for grid connections for the community and decentralised energy
• reform the energy network to allow local energy grids and build more interconnectors for energy security
• support new electric vehicle charging points

Energy consumers

Conservative Party:

• maintain and evolve the energy price cap
• review and reform standing charges to keep them low
• introduce more efficient local electricity markets
• offer households smart energy tariffs

Labour Party:

• reduce standing charges to lower consumer costs
• strengthen energy regulation to hold companies accountable

Liberal Democrats:

• launch an emergency home energy upgrade program
• require new homes and buildings to meet zero-carbon standards
• reintroduce energy efficiency requirements for landlords
• introduce social tariffs for vulnerable consumers
• eliminate regional differences in domestic energy bills
• decouple electricity prices from wholesale gas prices

These pledges demonstrate the significant divergence in approach among the main UK parties regarding the energy sector, highlighting the crucial role the upcoming election will play in shaping the future of energy in the UK.