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Energy White Paper

On 14 December 2020, BEIS published its long-awaited Energy White Paper, setting out plans to achieve a net zero future.

What does this mean to the end user?

  • The plan will drive the UK’s move away from fossil fuels, by providing further details on government’s ten point plan for a green economic recovery, which included:

    • Funding for 250,000 new green jobs

    • Support for hydrogen and carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS)

    • Targets to install more heat pumps and offshore wind

  • The white paper provides further detail on the rationale for each of the action points and more information on how government will achieve the goals

  • It also confirmed that a UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) is to replace the EU ETS in January 2021 (rather than a carbon tax)

  • End users that participate in the EU ETS must still meet that scheme’s compliance requirements for 2020 and should look out further updates on how the UK ETS will operate

The Energy White Paper announcement is available here and the full document ‘Powering our Net Zero Future’ is available here. The Government’s ten point plan is available here. Further details on how end users should meet their climate change requirements in 2021 is available here.