Ministers must publish a plan to secure the investment needed to meet the UK’s carbon budgets after a series of Government policy changes have contributed to a collapse in clean energy investment, according to MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee.

The latest figures for low-carbon energy investment show that there has been a ‘dramatic and worrying collapse’ since 2015 that threatens the UK’s ability to meet its carbon budgets. In cash terms, investment in clean energy fell by 10% in 2016 and 56% in 2017. Annual investment in clean energy is now at its lowest since 2008. Huge policy and investment challenges remain in decarbonising transport, domestic heating and industry.

Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said:

“Billions of pounds of investment is needed in clean energy, transport, heating and industry to meet our carbon targets. But a dramatic fall in investment is threatening the Government’s ability to meet legally binding climate change targets. The Government’s Clean Growth Strategy was long on aspiration, but short on detail.”

“The Government must urgently plug this policy gap and publish its plan to secure the investment required to meet the UK’s climate change targets. It should provide greater clarity on how it intends to deliver the Clean Growth Strategy by the 2018 Budget, and explore how a Sovereign Green Bond could kickstart its Clean Growth Strategy.”

The report finds that the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank and a reduction in European Investment Bank lending following the referendum may also have played a part in the fall in investment.

The Committee is calling on the Government to negotiate to maintain the UK’s relationship with the European Investment Bank, which would allow riskier early-stage green infrastructure projects in the UK continued access to development bank finance.

According to the MPS, issuing a Sovereign Green Bond could present an opportunity for the Government to set a benchmark of good practice for domestic green bonds and be a useful mechanism to raise the capital necessary to deliver on carbon budgets.

The report also concludes it was likely that changes to low-carbon energy policy in 2015 undermined investor confidence and led to a reduction in the number of projects in development.

In 2015 the Government made the following changes to policy which harmed confidence in low-carbon projects:

• closed the Renewables Obligation to onshore wind one year earlier than had previously been announced;
• removed the Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption for renewables;
• reduced Feed-In-Tariffs for small scale renewable generation;
• cancelled the Zero Carbon Homes policy due to come into force in 2016; and
• cancelled the £1 billion Carbon Capture & Storage competition.

Click here to read the report  Green finance: mobilising investment in clean energy and sustainable development in full