Net zero: believe the hype?
Wherever you went at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, the government’s green energy agenda was prominent. The Prime Minister, who once suggested that wind farms ‘couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding’, wants environmental policy to be a defining issue of his legacy. But is there anything solid that lies behind the hype? Can the government’s policy really enrich the UK economy, as well as tackle climate change? That was the subject of a Spectator panel discussion in Manchester, sponsored by EY. Hywel Ball, now UK chairman of EY, was, in the mid-2000s, head of its energy advisory business. Even then, he says, the signs were there that renewable energy was a good place to invest.
