CCC cost of net zero analysis: comment

Commenting on new analysis by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which finds that the cost of net zero by 2050 is less than a single fossil fuel price shock [1] Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International Programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said:

“The last fossil fuel energy crisis, when Russia invaded Ukraine, cost the UK £183 billion over four years [2]. As the next one unfolds, it’s worth remembering that renewable alternatives to gas are cheaper and quicker to build, and that last year British windfarms cut wholesale prices by almost a third [3]. Electric vehicles are also cheaper than petrol and diesel ones to own and run even when oil prices are not soaring, saving their owners hundreds of pounds a year. 

“And now we know that the cost of getting the UK to net zero — the only solution we have to halting climate change — is less than the cost of a single fossil fuel price shock. As the world faces yet another fossil fuel crisis, it is clearer than ever that a clean technologies offer a less costly, and more energy secure future.”