On Thursday 12 October, the UK Government published over 20 different documents related to its Clean Growth strategy.  The broader announcement was a welcome aspiration by the Government to link meeting its carbon targets with industrial growth.  A summary of the main documents likely to be of interest to IFRF members is below: 

Clean Growth Strategy
The key strategy document, stretching to over 160 pages, outlines how the Government will take forward its commitment to further reduce carbon emissions across the whole economy including transport, homes and industry.  Key areas of interest to IFRF members are:

• Industrial Energy Efficiency scheme: £9.2m innovation funding to support heavy industry to reduce emissions; and £20m to support industry to switch fuels (eg. to hydrogen); and Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme (see below).
• Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS): Renewed commitment, including £100m innovation fund.
• “Decision points”:  Annexes at the back helpfully show the points at which Government is likely to be making policy or regulatory decisions.
• “Future pathways”:  The document mainly focusses on carbon targets to the early 2030s, but does highlight three possible pathways to 2050 which are:

• Electricity (electricity is main energy source, delivered by renewables and nuclear; transport and heat largely electrified
• Hydrogen (massive increase in use of hydrogen to heat homes; and some transport)
• Biomass (biomass combined with CCS)

Click here to view the Clean Growth Strategy document. 

Coal generation in Great Britain
No new policy announcement, but continues the Government’s aim of ending unabated coal generation by 2025. This latest document summarises responses to the Government policy consultation from November 2016.  We expect to see clear policy, and possible changes to legislation, later this year.

Click here to view the ‘Coal generation in Great Britain: The pathway to a low-carbon future’ document.

Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme
As part of the Government’s objective of reducing carbon emissions from industry, Ministers have announced a new “Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme” and published this consultation (responses due by 4 January 2018), to:

• Test the proposed design of the Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme (IHRS)
• Gather additional evidence on the enablers and barriers to recovering industrial waste heat, to ensure the scheme is appropriately designed and maximises value for money
• Start to identify a potential pipeline of projects from across industry sectors.

Click here to view the details of the Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme. 

Industrial decarbonisation and energy efficiency action plans
Action plans setting out government and industry commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency have been published for seven key sectors (cement; ceramics; chemicals; food and drink; glass; oil refining; pulp and paper).

The plans contain no new policy / regulation announcements, but are a welcome indication of the UK Government’s recognition that heavy industry needs further support to decarbonise.

For example the Cement Action Plan outlines aspirations to explore how CCUS technology could be accelerated.

Click here to view the ‘Industrial decarbonisation and energy efficiency action plans’ document.