Government launches inquiry into low carbon transport and heat

The House of Commons Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Committee has announced an inquiry into the 2020 renewable heat and transport targets.

While progress towards the share of renewable electricity is on track, concerns have been raised regarding progress in renewable heat and transport. The Committee on Climate Change has warned that the Government’s ambitions may no longer be achievable and moreover, some research has suggested that renewable transport fuels may cause more carbon emissions than they save.

The Committee hopes to explore the main challenges with, and potential solutions to, meeting the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets for heat and transport. They believe that progress in the heat and transport sectors will be crucial to meeting the UK’s own long-term decarbonisation targets as set out in the Climate Change Act.

The ECC Committee has released a call for responses addressing some or all of the following questions:

• Does the Government have the right policies in place to meet its 2020 renewable energy targets in the heat and transport sectors, and if not where are policies missing or inadequate?
• How could a whole systems approach across the power, heat and transport sectors be utilised to ensure the 2020 targets are met?
• To what extent is electrification of heat and transport a viable approach up to 2020 and beyond?
• What are the challenges (regulatory, technological, behavioural, and others) to decarbonising heat and transport over the longer-term and how might these be overcome?

Responses are asked to be in no more than 3000 words.