Unlocking Net Zero: ScottishPower unveils 10-point plan to deliver jobs and investment for green recovery

10 steps allow green recovery to become a reality:

• Installing electric charge points across every community, village, town and city and accelerating the switch to electric vehicles by 2030
• Increasing the building of renewables to supply every home, business and car with green electricity
• Supporting more than 100,000 new jobs and apprentice opportunities for today’s generation of young people.
• Green recovery delivered through private investment and minimal cost to customers and able to start now

ScottishPower – the UK’s first 100% green energy company – has outlined 10 immediate steps to create jobs and investment that will drive the UK’s green recovery and deliver quick returns for the economy, people and communities.

The priorities and regulatory changes set out in UNLOCKING NET ZERO: 10 Practical Steps For A Green Recovery are focused on changes the Government could make to quickly boost private investment in the economy and create jobs. Most of these changes would come with minimal cost to the public purse.

In response to the significant economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has recognised the need to stimulate economic growth in a sustainable and resilient way.

ScottishPower’s 10 steps provide a roadmap for accelerating investment in green infrastructure initiatives and unlocking significant economic benefits on the path to Net Zero. These would create jobs, incentivise investment, and boost the domestic supply chain.

Crucially, most of the steps can be taken without any additional cost to government. Existing regulatory and market mechanisms can be used to leverage private investment in energy infrastructure.

Focussing on four key areas – renewable energy, electric vehicles (EVs), low carbon homes, and energy networks – the 10 steps include:

• Removing the cap on future wind farm contract auctions to boost investment in renewable energy
• Bringing forward the ban on petrol and diesel vehicles to 2030 to encourage people to buy EVs sooner
• Bringing forward the Future Homes Standard from 2025 to 2022 to get more EV chargers and electric heat pumps into people’s homes
• Providing the right environment for greater investment in the electricity network for businesses like ScottishPower to invest more, with the forthcoming transmission networks price control (RIIO T2) an important test case for the scale of the UK’s ambition.

Keith Anderson, ScottishPower CEO, said: “Our 10 practical steps provide a clear sense of direction and ambition for government and business as we start to come out of this crisis. These are achievable and deliverable steps that really are within our grasp – providing immediate, inexpensive actions that can be taken now to give an immediate boost to the economy and provide long-term environmental benefits.

“We don’t need over-ambitious new programmes or giant innovations to deliver the necessary transformation. We need to build low carbon homes, get people into electric cars and construct new wind farms. We can do all these things, and do them quickly, with just small changes to existing government rules and regulations. It really is a no-brainer.

“The time is now and there isn’t a moment to waste if we want to achieve a better future, quicker. ScottishPower has worked hard during this crisis to keep power flowing to homes and businesses, generate clean energy, support our customers and keep our colleagues safe. Now we need to start building our future and we are demonstrating just how easily that can be done.

“With our 10 practical steps, we show how the green recovery can become a reality. And it can be done at little or zero cost to government. Investment can be stimulated, jobs* can be created and we can move closer to a cleaner, greener future. All of that is possible by unlocking net zero, and ScottishPower will continue to be at the forefront of making that happen.”

• Read the full Unlocking Net Zero report

Full details of ScottishPower’s Zero Carbon Communities campaign – which is about helping and guiding communities along the path to net zero –  are available on our Zero Carbon Communities area.

*Research by Capital Economics, commissioned by ScottishPower, has already shown that the UK’s journey to net zero could support over 100,000 jobs each year between now and 2025, and over 200,000 each year between 2026 and 2030.

The 10 Practical Steps For A Green Recovery

The 10 Practical Steps For A Green Recovery are detailed here.