GB Energy chair Juergen Maier has accused Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and her supporters of “living in a parallel universe” for wanting to scrap the Climate Change Act.
Ms Badenoch last week vowed to repeal the Act, abolishing controls on greenhouse gas emissions and dismantling what has been the cornerstone of green energy policy for successive governments.
She has already committed to scrapping the UK’s net zero target, but repeal of the Climate Change Act would go much further by removing a number of other objectives.
Ms Badenoch said her priority is growth, cheaper energy, and “protecting the natural landscapes we all love.”
Without naming the Tory leader, Mr Maier said in a post via his business leadership group Vocl that such a move made “no sense” as it was “the backbone driving progress” towards a clean energy future.
Mr Maier said the Act was “created by business, NCOs and politicians working together.
“I am not being political. I am apolitical. I’ve supported parties of all colours in driving gthe green industrial revolution – something I feel passionate about.
“But my call here is…. for energy security, jobs, prosperity… [there is a] need to call it out when policies announced like this, or indeed the scrapping of policies like this, just make no sense.”
He said renewable technologies are now mainstream “and those people living in this parallel universe are talking about this renewable energy sector as if it’s still waiting to happen, where as it clearly isn’t – it’s accelerating at one heck of a pace.”
He said it was important to focus on climate action, but the other important point is that “these technologies make commercial sense”.
Commenting on progress towards the transition, he said there had been a positive mood among investors at the summit held in Edinburgh last week, but the mood in Aberdeen is “more difficult, and understandably so”.
This was “because we haven’t quite managed to get the new projects of carbon capture, floating offshore wind and fixed bottom offshore wind off the ground fast enough.
“So the supply chain are not getting the orders from oil and gas and not being given the opportunity to transition into the renewable projects fast enough, so we need to provide more time and space.”
He added: “The investors in Edinburgh were there because they can get a commercial return from investing in these great technologies, and politically it makes so much sense for energy security and for driving economic growth.”
There were now 273,000 people working in the clean energy sector and that could increase by tens, even hundreds of thousands, he said, “if we get the energy transition right”.
Despite concerns he said he doesn’t speak to anybody in the oil and gas sector who does not believe, or want, the future to be renewable energy technologies.
“Indeed, we have to make Aberdeen and the north east of Scotland the energy capital for renewable energy for the UK, Europe and globally, just like it was for oil and gas.
“And we only do that by really focusing on accelerating the journey to some of these new projects.
He said this was borne out by global statistics. Bloomberg reported that in the first six months of this year across Europe there was the highest ever amount of investment in onshore and offshore wind technology.
He noted that fossil fuel energy production in China and India for the first half of the year had declined and their renewable energy was on a “massive” incline.
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