'The General Election's energy agenda: a turning point for the UK?'

As we approach the half-way point of the General Election campaign, it feels like an important moment to highlight the huge opportunity we have to make the energy transition a force for good that can lower bills, improve health and environmental outcomes for everyone, create energy security and help grow the UK economy, creating demand for new, skilled jobs.

All of the parties competing for seats in this general election have important manifesto commitments relating to energy:

The Conservatives say they want new gas-fired power stations, a new fleet of small modular reactors and a major new nuclear power station in North Wales. They have pledged to ensure the route to net zero is ‘pragmatic’ and would give Parliament a new binding vote on net zero action, whilst changing the remit of the Committee on Climate Change.

The Labour Party have said they would create a national, publicly-owned energy champion, GB Energy, alongside the development of a Sovereign Wealth Fund to ensure the nation benefits from the wealth created by the energy transition. They have committed to clean power by 2030, doubling onshore wind capacity, tripling solar and quadrupling offshore wind, as well as delivering a National Warm Homes plan.

The Liberal Democrats have arguably the most commitment to energy and climate, committing to a 10-year emergency home energy upgrade plan and a social tariff for those who are struggling to afford their energy needs, alongside committing to generating 90% of UK electricity needs from renewables by 2030. They would also create a new Ministerial role for sustainability within the Treasury, and create citizens assemblies on climate action.

The SNP are promising to balance a deal for the Scottish oil and gas sector against a commitment to generating 50% of Scotland’s energy needs from renewables by 2030.

Reform want to scrap net zero and create and use more fossil fuels; whilst the Green Party have pledged to bring the ‘Big 5’ energy retailers into public ownership and to spend £29bn on insulating homes.

A critical challenge - E.ON's view

Making energy work for everyone is a critical challenge for the five years of the next Parliament - and will continue to be so into the 2030s. We can do better, but we need to work together. 

In our view, for perhaps the first time in Britain, the often-conflicting objectives of energy policy - energy security, affordability, and reducing environmental impact - all now point to the same overarching approach.

The energy system that is needed to reduce carbon emissions, to  improve air quality and to drive better health outcomes, is the same as that needed for Britain to become more self-sufficient in energy and less reliant on increasingly volatile global markets for those fossil fuels, which have so drastically impacted the cost of energy in recent years.

As a country, we need to be less dependent on gas and other fossil fuels for our electricity, our heating, and fuelling our transport.

To do that we need to build more home-grown renewable energy generation, such as solar and wind, and to electrify our heating and transport to take advantage of those cleaner energy sources.

That means reducing the amount of energy we waste every day through a longer-term programme of energy efficiency from which everyone can benefit, and we need to upgrade our electricity networks to make them more flexible and able to do more with less.

Of immediate importance is the need for a social tariff or some kind of enduring targeted financial support for those people who desperately need it. The problem of increasing levels of debt - which is an issue to both households and the energy sector - continues to grow. A social tariff should be a priority for the new Government.

This is our view on how to best make that happen and the key priorities for the new Government to action on Day One.

Read our recently published manifesto for the future of UK energy.