The Bioenergy Industry Welcomes the Uk’s Clean Growth Strategy :BiogasWorld

By Marjolaine | 2017-10-25

October 12, 2017: UK released the Clean Growth Strategy

The UK government released its Clean Growth Strategy, which aims to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy while stimulating the economic growth in the next decade. The UK will support investment in improving business and industry efficiency, rolling out low carbon heating and accelerating the shift to low carbon transport.

The Climate Change Act, passed in 2008, committed the UK to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. According to the report, “this approach has now been used as a model for action across the world, and is mirrored by the United Nations’ Paris Agreement.” The target for 2032 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 57% was voted in 2016, but the UK lacked a clear strategy to achieve this. For now, UK exceeded its initial objectives: it has cut emissions by 42% since 1990.

Between 2015 and 2030, the UK low carbon economy could grow by an estimated 11% per year, which is 4 times faster than the rest of the economy.

Investment in innovation for clean growth

According to the report, to achieve the desired clean growth, the UK will need to nurture low carbon technologies through innovation, processes and systems that are as cheap as possible. The UK will invest over £2.5 billion from 2015 to 2021, including 33% for decreasing emissions in the transport sector and 25% in the power production.

UK Investissement pour la croissance verte

This strategy sets out a total of 50 policies and proposals.

Clean Growth Strategy welcomed by the bioenergy industry

The report emphasizes on the potential for the future of bioenergy and biofuels as playing a key role in the transition towards renewable energies.

In the strategy for 2032, sustainable biomass power stations are highlighted as an ‘Emissions removal pathway. “Under this pathway, sustainable biomass power stations are used in tandem with CCUS [Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage] technology,” according to the report.

The report indicates hydrogen and bioenergy as ‘Clean Growth Innovation Challenges’.

“Clean fuels such as hydrogen and bioenergy could be used for transport, industry, and to heat our homes and businesses. We need to test how they work in the existing gas network, whether they can fire industrial processes, and how they could be used in domestic appliances. These options need to work as well and as cheaply as current technologies.”

The report states the government has already invested in researching the roles bioenergy can play in decarbonising heat. These inital findings might be published later this year.

Transport

Regarding transport, the strategy sets an ambitious target for 2050: increase the level of investment by 50% by 2020 in the transport sector.

The report notes that the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) has driven the increase amounts of biofuels. Around 3% of fuel sales in the UK are biofuels, which about 50% are derived from wastes. The RTFO has stimulated around £1 billion of investment in UK biofuel production facilities.

Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association ABDA

According to ADBA, anaerobic digestion and biogas can play a key role in meeting the Growth Strategy’s goals.

Charlotte Morton, ABDA Chief Executive, said:

“The multi-faceted nature of AD means that, with the right support, it can play a central role in decarbonising heat, electricity, transport, and farming, as well as recycling organic wastes, increasing energy and food security, and restoring the UK’s degraded soils. No other technology can make such a key contribution to so many different areas of the Clean Growth Strategy.”

“We welcome the government’s ambition to divert all food waste from landfill by 2030 and to support local authorities in rolling out separate food waste collections. We look forward to BEIS’s new Resources & Waste Strategy, which will need to be supported by meaningful funding and legislation to effect the scale of change needed for an urgent transition to a more circular economy.”

“We also welcome the strategy’s highlighting of the importance of best practice in AD. ADBA’s pioneering, industry-led Best Practice Scheme, which will be launched in full later this year, will help support AD operators in meeting the highest environmental, health and safety, and operational standards.”

“The publication of the Clean Growth Strategy today is a welcome sign that the government is starting to think about how we can make the deep emissions cuts that will be necessary to meet the Fourth and Fifth Carbon Budgets over the next 15 years. What is needed now is tangible support for AD in the form of the following:

Urgent tabling of legislation on the Renewable Heat Incentive to renew support for biomethane-to-grid;
A long-term replacement for the Feed-In Tariff to support small-scale renewable electricity generation;
Mandatory separate food waste collections in England to allow AD to recycle this vital and underused resource; and
A new support system for farmers that rewards carbon abatement and incentivises the use of biofertiliser to restore soils.”

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