Labour sell the plan — Energy Bill again — Blair’s net zero playbook – POLITICO

— Labour continues to lay out its energy policy stall. We round up news lines and reaction.

— In parliament, the Energy Bill is back and there’s a new MP on the energy security and net zero committee.

— Tony Blair’s think tank spells out how the U.K. can deliver “a decade of electrification.” We’ve got your lowdown.

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LABOUR SELL THE PLAN: Keir Starmer’s big energy speech on Monday is still being digested by the experts, the leaders of industry and the wider public — and two Labour big beasts are out on the stump again today talking net zero and climate.

More from Miliband: Shadow Climate and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband will appear on a panel at King’s College on “the potential for public investment in building clean energy.” Register for the live stream here, event starts at 12.00 p.m.

LAMMY ON CLIMATE: Meanwhile, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy is speaking to businesses and trade bodies at the Trade Unlocked Conference in Birmingham at 4 p.m. He’ll commit to increasing the number of British diplomatic staff focused on climate change and says Labour will reappoint a dedicated U.K. climate envoy (the government dropped the post earlier this year.) 

Economic diplomacy: Lammy will also talk up a new push for “economic diplomacy,” aimed at deepening ties with countries that are essential to supply chains for clean energy industries. Think critical mineral-producing countries like Australia and Chile — which are already being courted by the EU in a bid to counterbalance China’s stranglehold on global supply chains. Lammy will also call on the U.K. to emulate the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which he describes as “a transformative public investment in jobs and renewable energy.”

SETTING THE MOOD: Starmer was clear in his Edinburgh speech yesterday that energy and climate are central to Labour’s plans for government, should they win power at the next election — and it’s notable that we’re getting another day where the Opposition is dominating the topic. They are seriously leaning into this.

STARMER STOCK-TAKE: The Starmer speech received a positive response from many in the energy sector — but there was also a green backlash against his confirmation that plans to ban new oil and gas developments in the North Sea won’t extend to any licenses issued before the next election.

Reminder: The Labour leader promised to cut bills and create jobs — particularly in Scotland — as he laid out the plan. You can read more details here. He also stressed his pledge to back up private investment with substantial public funds and nodded to his “allies” in the White House which he argued were “setting the pace” with the green investment promised in the IRA. 

Full quote: “This is what the government doesn’t get. Public investment crowds in private investment and provides long-term certainty. This partnership — this is the game-changer.”

INDUSTRY SAYS: Dan McGrail, chief executive of the trade association, RenewableUK, said Labour’s mission required “considerable reforms to planning, grid development, regulatory frameworks and skills policy,” which need to be looked at as a “matter of urgency.”

SHAPPS ATTACK: Energy Secretary Grant Shapps maintained his attack on Labour’s oil and gas plans, calling the speech a “white flag to Just Stop Oil,” and Starmer continued to face questions about the party’s funding from the protest group’s backer, Dale Vince. Starmer told Sky News that donors have “absolutely no role in policy.”

Green wing: In a sign that Labour may find themselves pincered between critics on the left and the right, the Green Party hammered Starmer for essentially giving the go-ahead to the Rosebank oilfield under a Labour government. Deputy leader of the Greens Zack Polanski called the approach “simply unforgivable.”

NEW NUGGETS: Labour also unveiled a new policy — the “British Jobs Bonus” — which would tweak the Contracts for Difference Scheme, a program providing developers with price certainty to encourage the creation of more jobs through renewables projects in the U.K.’s former fossil fuel heartlands. The party said it would allocate up to £500 million in grants in each of its first five years to back clean energy companies that set up shop in those regions. Firms would be required to recognize unions as a “condition for entry” into the scheme. 

OFF, DOWN AND UP: The Labour leader was also grilled on the party’s recent move to water down its existing pledge to invest £28 billion per year in the green transition. He insisted he wasn’t “backing off” but “doubling down” on the plan and that Labour will now “ramp up” to this amount within the second half of a parliamentary term.

Step back: “When I say to people in the sector that we want clean power by 2030, they don’t say you’re backing down, they say: Woah, that’s a real challenge,” Starmer said. He has a point. The sheer scale of Labour’s spending plans is starting to hit home.

Positioning: Colm Britchfield, a policy adviser at the climate change think tank E3G, told MECUK that Labour had positioned itself well as “the green candidate for the next election.” Britchfield added: “I think it has created a really clear dividing line between themselves and the government in terms of how they would approach the next five to ten years of the transition and laid down a really strong marker for the government to respond to in some way at the next election.”

**A message from SSE: Actions, not ambitions will secure our energy future. We’re investing over £7m a day in low-carbon energy infrastructure projects across the UK, including transforming our networks to harness more of Britain’s renewables potential. SSE. We Power Change. Discover how.**

ENERGY BILL: The government’s Energy Bill is — once again — up for debate at committee stage. Hearings are scheduled for 9:25 a.m. and 2 p.m. today. Follow live here.

LORDS QUESTIONS: Peers will be grilling the government on industrial strategy in the House of Lords chamber from 2.30 p.m.

FUTURE OF UTILITIES: The summit kicks off today. Industry executives from across the utilities sector are attending, including from big hitters Scottish Power, National Grid and Anglican Water. Here’s the agenda.

NEW ESNZ COMMITTEE MEMBER: The House of Commons energy security and net zero committee (which we’re now christening ESNZ, if that’s alright with everyone?) has another new member: Conservative MP for Rugby Mark Pawsey. Full membership of the committee, under SNP chair Angus Brendan MacNeil, is here.

ELECTRIC VANS WARNING: British businesses are struggling to get their hands on electric vans due to supply shortages, the Climate Group NGO warned today. The group represents 28 major firms including Royal Mail and BT Openreach through something called the UK Electric Fleets Coalition. They’re citing recent figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders which show that less than 3 percent of new van registrations were battery-powered electric vehicles.

Mandate incoming: Climate Group Director of Transport Sandra Roling is calling for ministers to be ambitious with their zero emissions vehicle mandate — the rules stating how many EVs manufacturers need to build per year — which are due to be in place from 2024, ahead of the ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2030.

U.K. SEAS HEAT UP: Water temperatures around parts of the British Isles are 3C to 4C above average for the time of year, according to the European Space Agency. The causes are complex but climate change is playing its part, the Met Office says. More from the BBC here.

THE CLUSTER EFFECT: The Green Alliance think tank has a breakdown of the places set to benefit economically from the net zero transition. Scotland has an advantage due to its proximity to offshore wind and carbon capture and storage sites, while eastern England will also benefit from access to offshore wind farms.

JINGLE MINGLE LATEST: The Mirror has revealed that one half of the dancing pair in *that* partygate video is Jack Smith, a parliamentary aide to the energy minister, Graham Stuart. Evidently it didn’t take long for #partygate to crash into MECUK.

TONY BLAIR’S NET ZERO PLAYBOOK: With perhaps not entirely coincidental good timing, former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s think tank, the Institute for Global Change, has dropped a report spelling out how the U.K. can strengthen its net zero push with a “decade of electrification.” The full report is available here in case you’re curious, Keir. Or Rishi, for that matter.  

“It’s been 84 years…” The paper, by Hermione Dace and Tone Langengen, begins with some pretty sobering projections. If the U.K. continues on current trajectories, the report says, it would not decarbonize the electricity grid till 2062 (reminder, government target is 2035 and Labour wants 2030.) A goal of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 wouldn’t be hit till 2039. And getting grid capacity up to scratch to supply an electrified economy wouldn’t happen until 2084. (MECUK really hopes we’re not still writing about the grid by then).

Solutions: There’s also a natty chart (figure one in the report) showing how much faster progress will have to be between today and 2035, compared with what was managed between 2010 and now (short version: everything needs to be done quicker across the board). The IGC argues that, to turn things around, the U.K. needs a four-part strategy founded on building the infrastructure required to double electricity currently available; attracting investment to the U.K. with “strategic use of public finance;” boosting consumer and business confidence in the green agenda; and ensuring regulation frees up space for innovation in energy.

Nuts and bolts: Among its recommendations, the report calls for reform of the planning system to ensure decisions about important infrastructure projects are made within six months (speeding up consenting rules has been a major part of the EU’s green push as well.) It also recommends reform of Ofgem, arguing that “delivery of infrastructure for a decade of electrification should be the core of what Ofgem and the National Grid do.” 

FSO a-go-go: The new Future System Operator — the new public body due to be established by the Energy Bill — will also need a clear remit and have the power to “draw together all areas of government policy that demand grid capacity,” the authors say.

The final word: “The country needs an economic and societal transformation not seen since the Industrial Revolution to maintain its position as a global leader on tackling climate change,” the report says, adding: “The policies and institutions developed in Britain can become a blueprint for the rest of the world to follow and an anchor of U.K. economic growth and prosperity.”

**A message from SSE: The race is on: for green growth, for net zero, for energy security. We need to be bold, today. At SSE, we’re investing in a homegrown energy system. We’re building the world’s largest offshore wind farm to power over 6 million British homes a year. We’re connecting renewable energy, households and businesses, to a greener grid. We’re pioneering low-carbon technologies. And we’re creating 1000s of sustainable jobs. We’re delivering Britain’s energy future, today. SSE. We power change. Find out more.**