Labour needs Hercules to reach climate target

Labour needs the help of Hercules if they’re to reach their net zero target by 2030. That is the summation of Chris Stark, the former chief climate advisor to the UK government.

Labour has pledged itself to clean up the power system by ensuring that electricity production in Britain does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and despite some squeamishness, Keir Starmer has insisted that the party will stick by this pledge when in office. 

However, green policy experts have cast doubt on the feasibility of that pledge pointing to the fact that to achieve it, Labour would need to rapidly expand Britain’s creaking electricity grid, tackle slow reform laws and get more renewable energy sources online within five years. Stark is amongst those who think the task is perhaps too far for the party, but has added a line of optimism.

“One route could be for policymakers to focus more on speeding up the decarbonization of the UK’s fleet of gas-fired power stations, which are being used to prop up renewables when the wind doesn’t blow. This can be done through the use of things like carbon capture, the process of taking harmful carbon emissions and storing them underground.” 

This would, according to Stark, allow Labour to generate electricity without generating carbon emissions, as long as the party is willing to throw everything at it.

Of course given that Stark was indirectly responsible for the ending of the SNP-Green coalition by stating that their targets were no longer credible, one might want to take his words with a pinch of salt.