The government has announced its strategy to meet its promise to cut emissions to net zero by 2050.
In the 368-page document, Boris Johnson said the aim is to “meet the global climate emergency but not with panicked, short-term or self-destructive measures”.
The prime minister added the plan will be driven forward by the “unique power of capitalism” to bring down the costs of going green “so we can make net zero a net win for people, for industry, for the UK and for the planet”.
Image: Boris Johnson and Bill Gates (L) announced a green investment partnership
These are the key pledges and policies – and Treasury concerns over how it will be paid for:
Power
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The government confirmed a target for all electricity to come from low carbon sources by 2035 – subject to security of supply – which brings the plan forward by 15 years.
That includes:
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• 40 gigawatts from offshore wind, including 1GW of floating offshore wind by 2030
• Deploying a carbon capture, utilisation and storage power plant
Image: The government wants 40GW to come from offshore wind farms by 2030
• By the end of this parliament (May 2024), the government wants to secure a final investment decision on a large-scale nuclear plant and make decisions after that for more nuclear projects
• Providing £380m for the offshore wind sector
• Fixed minimum annual installation targets of smart meters for energy suppliers from 1 January 2022 so everyone has one by 2026
• Ensuring energy prices are fair and affordable and consumers can use services that will support net zero
Fuel supply and hydrogen
The government wants to deliver 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 while halving oil and gas emissions.
It plans to do that by:
• Providing up to £140m to establish a scheme that will fund new hydrogen and industrial carbon capture business models
• Implementing a £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund in 2022
• Working with the transport sector to develop a low carbon fuel strategy in 2022
• Working with companies to get rid of anything preventing the electrification of oil and gas production by October 2022
• Establishing a climate compatibility check for future licensing on the UK Continental Shelf – the water around the UK to which the country has mineral rights, including large resources of oil and gas
Image: The PM wants hydrogen to become one of the main fuels used in the UK
Industry
The ambition is for 6 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) to be delivered per year of industrial carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) by 2030, and 9 MtCO2 per year by 2035.
The government wants to set up four CCUS “clusters” by 2030.
To achieve this, it wants to:
• Set up a £1bn carbon capture and storage infrastructure fund
• Give £315m to the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to support the installation of energy efficiency and on-site decarbonisation measures – £289m for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, £26m for Scotland
How will this all be paid for?
A Treasury report has said funding the proposals will be difficult, especially as fossil fuel taxes will not be contributing, and warned “new sources of revenue” would be needed.
It added that passing the costs onto future taxpayers through borrowing would “deviate from the polluter pays principle” and would not be fair so the government “may need to consider changes to existing taxes and new sources of revenue”.
But, it said additional revenue could be raised from those doing the most polluting via “expanded carbon pricing”, therefore reducing the need to raise other taxes.
• Support switching from fuel to low carbon alternatives, with the aim of replacing around 50 TeraWatt Hours (TWh) of fossil fuels per year by 2035
• Consider the business and financial implications of setting targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035
• Incentivise a cost-effective way of ending the reliance on carbon-emitting fuels in industry
Image: The government will support the switch from a reliance on carbon-emitting fuels in industry
Heat and buildings
The government wants to wean UK homes and all buildings off a reliance on fossil fuels by 2035 by making it affordable and achievable for everyone.
It has published the Heat and Buildings Strategy, which aims to:
• Support 175,000 green-skilled jobs by 2030 and 240,000 by 2035
• Phase out the installation of new gas boilers by 2035
• Introduce a £450m Boiler Upgrade Scheme so grants of £5,000 will be available from April 2022 for people to replace gas boilers with low carbon heat pumps (currently around £10,000) at the same cost – with the aim of making heat pumps as cheap to buy and run as gas boilers by 2030
• Invest £60m in heat pump innovation to make them more aesthetically pleasing, smaller and easier to install
• Insulate and upgrade poor homes and social housing so they are more efficient by 2030 with a £1.75bn investment
• Set standards for privately rented homes so they are more energy-efficient by 2028 (and will consider doing this for social housing)
• Invest £1.425bn to reduce direct emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037
• Set a minimum energy efficiency standard of EPC Band B (the second most efficient) by 2030 for privately rented commercial buildings in England and Wales
• Trial hydrogen heating on a large-scale to make a decision by 2026 on its future role
Transport
The government has pledged to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2030 and from 2035 all new cars and vans must be zero-emission.
To achieve that it wants to:
• Set targets for a percentage of new vehicle sales to be zero-emission each year from 2024
• End the sale of all new, non-zero emission road vehicles by 2040 – including motorcycles, buses and HGVs
• Ensure the UK’s vehicle charging network is reliable
• Commit an additional £620m on top of the £1.9bn already pledged for zero-emission vehicle grants and electric vehicle infrastructure
• Have 25% of the government’s car fleet ultra-low emission by December 2022 and all zero-emission by 2027
Image: Electric vehicle charging points will be boosted under the plan
• Invest £12bn in local transport systems by May 2024
• Invest £2bn in cycle lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods so half of all town and city journeys can be walked or cycled by 2030
• Invest £3bn in buses, including 4,000 new zero-emission buses, more bus lanes and more frequent services
• Electrify all railway lines by 2050 and remove all diesel-only trains by 2040
• Phase out the sale of new non-zero emission domestic shipping vessels
• Use £180m of funding so 10% of commercial flights use sustainable aviation fuels by 2030
Natural resources, waste and fluorinated gases (man-made gases such as HFCs and PFCs used in industry that contribute to the greenhouse effect)
The government wants 75% of farmers in England to be using low carbon practices by 2030 and 85% by 2035.
It aims to do this by:
• Increasing research and development funding into how to deliver net zero in agriculture and horticulture
• Trebling tree growing to meet the target of 30,000 hectares of planting per year by May 2024 and maintain that from 2025 onwards
Bill Gates boosts UK green investment
Boris Johnson and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced a £400m partnerships to boost green investment.
Mr Gates and the government are going 50/50 on the investment.
The tech billionaire said the money will go towards funding clean technologies and reducing their costs “so they can compete with and replace the high-emitting products we use today”.
• Adding £124m to the existing £640m Nature for Climate Fund to restore at least 35,000 hectares of peatland in England, and create and manage woodlands by 2025 – helping farmers to change land use
• Restoring about 280,000 hectares of peat in England by 2050
• Supporting private investment in tree planting and peat restoration
• Increasing the use of timber in construction in England
• Putting £295m into English local authorities to implement free separate food waste collections for all households from 2025 to eliminate biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill from 2028
• Completing a review of F-gas regulations and seeing if they can go further
Panama’s capital city will accept cryptocurrency payments for taxes and municipal fees, including bus tickets and permits, Panama City mayor Mayer Mizrachi announced on April 15, joining a growing list of jurisdictions globally that have voted to accept such payments.
Panama City will begin accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Circle’s USDC (USDC), and Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin for payment once the crypto-to-fiat payment rails are established, Mizrachi posted on the X platform.
Mizrachi said previous administrations attempted to push through similar legislation but failed to overcome stipulations requiring the local government to accept funds denominated in US dollars.
In a translated statement, the Panama City mayor said that the local government partnered with a bank that will immediately convert any digital assets received into US dollars, allowing the municipality to accept crypto without introducing new legislation.
Panama City joins a growing list of global jurisdictions on the municipal and state level accepting cryptocurrency payments for taxes, exploring Bitcoin strategic reserves to protect public treasuries from inflation and passing pro-crypto policies to attract investment.
Several municipalities and territories around the globe already accept crypto for tax payments or are exploring various implementations of blockchain technology for government spending.
The US state of Colorado started accepting crypto payments for taxes in September 2022. Much like Panama City said it will do, Colorado immediately converts the crypto to fiat.
In December 2023, the city of Lugano, Switzerland, announced taxes and city fees could be paid in Bitcoin, which was one of the developments that earned it the reputation of being a globally recognized Bitcoin city.
The city council of Vancouver, Canada, passed a motion to become “Bitcoin-friendly city” in December 2024. As part of that motion, the Vancouver local government will explore integrating BTC into the financial system, including tax payments.
North Carolina lawmaker Neal Jackson introduced legislation titled “The North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act” on April 10. If passed, the bill will recognize cryptocurrencies as an official form of payment that can be used to pay taxes.
As digital assets gain mainstream adoption, establishing a legal framework for stablecoins is a “good idea,” said US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
In an April 16 panel at the Economic Club of Chicago, Powell commented on the evolution of the cryptocurrency industry, which has delivered a consumer use case that “could have wide appeal” following a difficult “wave of failures and frauds,” he said.
Powell delivers remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago. Source: Bloomberg Television
During crypto’s difficult years, which culminated in 2022 and 2023 with several high-profile business failures, the Fed “worked with Congress to try to get a […] legal framework for stablecoins, which would have been a nice place to start,” said Powell. “We were not successful.”
“I think that the climate is changing and you’re moving into more mainstreaming of that whole sector, so Congress is again looking […] at a legal framework for stablecoins,” he said.
“Depending on what’s in it, that’s a good idea. We need that. There isn’t one now,” said Powell.
This isn’t the first time Powell acknowledged the need for stablecoin legislation. In June 2023, the Fed boss told the House Financial Services Committee that stablecoins were “a form of money” that requires “robust” federal oversight.
Washington’s formal embrace of cryptocurrency began earlier this year when Trump established the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, with Bo Hines as the executive director.
Hines told a digital asset summit in New York last month that a comprehensive stablecoin bill was a top priority for the current administration. After the Senate Banking Committee passed the GENIUS Act, a final stablecoin bill could arrive at the president’s desk “in the next two months,” said Hines.
Bo Hines (right) speaks of “imminent” stablecoin legislation at the Digital Asset Summit on March 18. Source: Cointelegraph
Stablecoins pegged to the US dollar are by far the most popular tokens used for remittances and cryptocurrency trading.
The combined value of all stablecoins is currently $227 billion, according to RWA.xyz. The dollar-pegged USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) account for more than 88% of the total market.
An appellate court has granted a joint request from Ripple Labs and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pause an appeal in a 2020 SEC case against Ripple amid settlement negotiations.
In an April 16 filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the court approved a joint SEC-Ripple motion to hold the appeal in abeyance — temporarily pausing the case — for 60 days. As part of the order, the SEC is expected to file a status report by June 15.
April 16 order approving a motion to hold an appeal in abeyance. Source: PACER
The SEC’s case against Ripple and its executives, filed in December 2020, was expected to begin winding down after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on March 19 that the commission would be dropping its appeal against the blockchain firm. A federal court found Ripple liable for $125 million in an August ruling, resulting in both the SEC and blockchain firm filing an appeal and cross-appeal, respectively.
However, once US President Donald Trump took office and leadership of the SEC moved from former chair Gary Gensler to acting chair Mark Uyeda, the commission began dropping multiple enforcement cases against crypto firms in a seeming political shift. Ripple pledged $5 million in XRP to Trump’s inauguration fund, and Garlinghouse and chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty attended events supporting the US president.
Despite support for the end of the case coming from both Ripple and the SEC, the August 2024 judgment and appellate cases leave some legal entanglements. Alderoty said in March that Ripple would drop its cross-appeal with the SEC and receive a roughly $75 million refund from the lower court judgment. It’s unclear what else may result from negotiations over a settlement in appellate court.
New leadership at SEC incoming
Acting chair Uyeda is expected to step down following the US Senate confirming Paul Atkins as SEC chair on April 9.
During his confirmation hearings, lawmakers questioned Atkins about his ties to crypto, which could create conflicts of interest in his role regulating the industry. In financial disclosures, Atkins stated he had millions of dollars in assets through stakes in crypto firms, including Securitize, Pontoro and Patomak.