Investing in Britain’s ambitious green energy programme

Net zero policies are politically contested globally, but may present investment opportunities in the UK.

The world’s confused response to climate change has been highlighted again this month, flooding in Spain underlying the urgency of discussions at COP29, the annual UN climate meeting, while electorates push back on expensive net zero programmes, most recently through the re-election of arch-sceptic Donald Trump.

The UK’s course seems more certain, at least for next few years, under a new government committed to make Britain a ‘clean energy superpower’, with ambitions to turn UK’s electricity system carbon-neutral by 2030 by doubling onshore wind capacity, quadrupling offshore wind, and tripling solar capacity.

A report published earlier this month by the Department of Energy’s National Energy System Operator (NESO) highlights the scale of that challenge, estimating Britain will need 50% more electricity by 2035, demand drivers including the mass rollout of electric vehicles (Labour wants to end the sale of new petrol-powered cars by 2030) and heat pumps, and an explosion in data centre usage.