Labour party energy/climate policy revealed in leaked manifesto

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The UK Labour party has a leak, and its election manifesto has escaped into the wild. Here’s what it says about energy and climate.

Sustainable Energy

Labour’s energy policy is built on three simple principles:

• To ensure security of energy supply and ‘keep the lights on’

• To ensure energy costs are affordable for consumers and businesses

• To ensure we meet our climate change targets and transition to a low carbon economy

The UK energy system is outdated, expensive and polluting. Privatisation has failed to deliver an energy system that delivers for people, businesses or our environment.

One-in-ten households are in fuel poverty, yet according to the Competition Markets Authority customers are overcharged an enormous £2 billion every year.

Labour understands that many people don’t have time to shop around, they just want reliable and affordable energy. So the next Labour Government will:

• Introduce an immediate emergency price cap to ensure that the average dual fuel household energy bill remains below £1,000 per year, while we transition to a fairer system for bill payers.

• Take energy back into public ownership to deliver renewable energy, affordability for consumers, and democratic control. The new public system will include three key elements:

o Central government control of the natural monopolies of the transmission and distribution grids, and of responsibility for the policy and information functions of the regulator.

o At least one publicly owned energy company in every region of the UK, that is a locally run, democratically accountable energy supplier, working to tackle fuel poverty, return profits to customers via reduced tariffs, support community energy projects and have drive larger energy companies to lower their prices in the area.

o A new Local Energy Task Force will provide help and advice for local people and businesses to start up Community Energy Cooperatives.

Labour will insulate four million homes as an infrastructure priority to help those who suffer in cold homes each winter. This will cut emissions, drive growth, improve health, increase energy security, save on bills and reduce fuel poverty and excess. winter deaths.

Homeowners will be offered 0% loans to improve their.property, and we will introduce revenue neutral stamp duty incentives to encourage a good energy efficiency standard at the point of sale.

For renters, Labour will improve upon Landlord Energy Efficiency regulations and re establish the Landlord Energy Saving Allowance to encourage the uptake of efficiency measures.

A Labour government will legislate to enforce the highest modern standards for ‘zero carbon’ buildings that generate as much energy on site as they use in heating, hot water and lighting. The technology is there. ·

Labour will ban fracking. To allow fracking would lock us into an energy infrastructure based on fossil fuels, long after the point in 2030 when the Committee on Climate Change says gas in the UK must sharply decline.

Emerging technologies such as carbon capture and storage will help to smooth the transition to cleaner fuels and will help to protect existing jobs as part of the future energy mix.

The UK is the world’s oldest nuclear industry, and nuclear will continue to be part of the UK energy supply.

We will support further nuclear projects and protect nuclear workers’ jobs and pensions. There are considerable opportunities for nuclear power and decommissioning both internationally and domestically.

Tackling climate change is non-negotiable, yet recent years have seen a failure to progress towards our targets. A Labour Government will put us back on track to meet the targets in the Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement. Building a clean economy of the future is the most important thing we must do for our children, our grandchildren and future generations.

The low carbon economy is one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors, creating jobs and providing investment across each region. It employed an estimated 447,000 employees in the UK in 2015 and saw over £77 billion in turnover. With backing from a Labour government these sectors can secure dominant shares of global export markets.

Currently the UK buys and sells energy tariff free from Europe, an arrangement which saves families and businesses money and helps balance the power grid. As part of the Brexit negotiations Labour will prioritise maintaining access to the internal energy market and will retain access to Euratom, to allow continued trade of fissile material, access to and collaboration over research vital to our nuclear industry.