British politicians were urged to accelerate the country’s clean energy transition by a group of leading academics and experts highlighting the risks of delay and the financial benefits of rapid action.
Economist Angela Francis, Director of Policy Solutions at WWF-UK, argued against slowing down the pace of energy transition on grounds of affordability.
“Delaying ‘until you can afford it’ assumes cost won’t increase or it will be cheaper later – that’s not true,” she asserted.
Francis drew on research from the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford’s Oxford Martin School, which found that a fast transition would generate twice the savings of a slow adoption of cleaner energy. “Learning by doing delivers major savings,” she noted. “And faster is cheaper.”
Francis was one of ten speakers who addressed an audience of UK parliamentarians and other invited guests as part of a ‘National Emergency Briefing’ on climate and nature crises, held in London on 27 November.
Francis said the migration to net zero energy sources was being delayed by prevailing market rules and resistance from vested interests. She urged the acceleration of regulatory changes to better account for the environmental impact of consumption and production, such as disclosure rules.
“We have done some of that already, but not enough and we are currently in danger of rolling back,” she said. “We need to consistently reward the businesses that are doing the work to be competitive in a new world where success includes – lowering carbon, restoring soils, keeping forests standing, circular use of resources and less waste – all things that add to our resilience.”
The European Parliament recently voted in favour of a package of measures to reduce sustainability disclosure requirements on corporates, which would also reduce transparency on environmental and social risks and impacts to investors. The UK government is currently consulting on proposals to introduce transition planning requirements for large corporates and financial institutions.
Citing a “positive link” between environmental reporting and company returns, Francis said that under prevailing rules firms that disclosed and managed their carbon footprint often suffered a dip in financial performance before seeing longer-term performance benefits.
“Those companies are doing extra work to lower their environmental impact and restore what we have lost. They have to invest, they have to pay for extra reporting and certification and either have to beat the opposition on price or trade in the 10-20% of the market that will pay a premium,” she added, urging politicians to “change the rules to get better outcomes when there are obvious market failures”.
