SSE has joined other leading low carbon developers to write to the UK Government, encouraging them to adopt a robust approach to carbon pricing in their future energy plans.
The letter, which is joined by leading climate change NGO Sandbag, outlines the need for stability and certainty, and calls on the Treasury to ensure efforts to reach net zero by 2050 aren’t undermined by any reduction to the carbon pricing level in GB currently made up of the EU ETS and the Carbon Price Support (CPS).
With climate action at the forefront of the public consciousness, SSE, Drax, Orsted and Sandbag say the UK must maintain “its global leadership and is not perceived to waver on its commitment to tackling climate change” ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November 2020.
The current uncertainty over carbon pricing is already impacting on the forward pricing in electricity markets and any reduction to current carbon pricing levels would send negative signals to low-carbon investors, at a time when the market is keen for low carbon investment opportunities.