Ulster Unionists call for 'unachievable' climate targets to be revised - warning 'we can't break people and industries'
The Ulster Unionist Party has called for Northern Ireland’s net zero targets to be reviewed – branding them “unachievable” in light of a scathing Audit Office report and the failure of the A5 road project.
Until now, the party had avoided calling for the controversial climate goals to be revisited – but deputy leader Robbie Butler says that the Executive cannot “break our people or our industries in pursuit of unachievable goals”.
In 2022 Northern Ireland’s governing parties – including the DUP and UUP – backed legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 – with an interim 48% target just over four years away. That was despite warnings that the goals were too ambitious.
This week an Audit Office report into the Department for the Economy’s green energy strategy found that there is a “very significant risk” that two of its three key targets will be missed by 2030, and that only 1% of one target it was supposed to implement had been achieved.
It comes after the High Court ruled that the current plans for the long-delayed A5 road project don’t meet the requirements of Stormont’s climate legislation – with other projects also on hold awaiting the outcome of an appeal by infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins.
The Alliance Party and Sinn Fein still support the net zero targets laid down under the law – but the DUP has repeatedly called for them to be revised, a call now backed by the Ulster Unionists.
Deputy Leader Robbie Butler MLA told the News Letter: “It is without doubt that the targets set in the previous mandate, voted on by all parties in the Assembly, set a very high bar. However, the Ulster Unionist Party now recognises that these targets were ambitious and increasingly appear unrealistic for 2030.
“Recent failures regarding energy targets, ongoing energy security concerns, the failure to deliver major roads infrastructure, and significant barriers to agri-food security, all linked to climate change targets, mean we must be realistic and pragmatic.
“This build up and failure to deliver has left us in a situation where a revision of these targets should be considered. We have seen elsewhere, for example in Scotland, that when targets do not work, they are revised and a new framework is put in place.
"Northern Ireland must also crucially look at structural changes which haven’t even been commenced, never mind delivered. The restrictive grip of SONI and NIE, combined with glacial reform from the department, means renewable connections are expensive, take far too long, and impose considerable penalties on developers.
“Coupled with that, planning is a nightmare, with renewable investors becoming increasingly frustrated. In Great Britain, response times and approvals are measured in months, not years. It is ironic that as you look east from the Antrim Hills, you can see developments in Scotland that have taken 20% of the time and one-third of the cost, built with the same materials and subcontractors we could be using here.
“There is no strategic view on storage, whether battery, inertia, pumped storage, or any other solution. Much mismanagement from the department that delivered RHI is not helping. Many interventions to help deliver these targets have come too little too late and at massive cost. Look at the Renewable Electricity Price Guarantee it simply will not deliver the numbers needed for 2030.
“Northern Ireland has a role to play in meeting the United Kingdom’s wider climate ambitions, but we cannot break our people or our industries in pursuit of unachievable goals. While Northern Ireland can contribute meaningfully to shared UK climate objectives, we must also acknowledge that we do not have the capacity to lead on this issue”.