Mission zero: key takeaways

The Review was the largest government stakeholder exercise ever conducted into net zero, with 1,800 responses from businesses across the low carbon economy, civil society, and academics. The CBI has welcomed the review, seeing it as aligned with our own position that net zero is a vital lever for economic growth, and recognising many of our own recommendations for how the UK can accelerate green growth.

Three key takeaways:

1. The Skidmore Review has set out a clear and detailed case for the size of the economic opportunity of net zero, and the need to accelerate investment to avoid losing our competitive edge.
   1. The final document finds that “net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21^st century”, with potential global market opportunity of £1 trillion by 2030 for British business.
   2. There are some areas the UK is particularly well positioned to take advantage of – offshore wind, carbon capture and storage (CCUS), and green finance in particular.
   3. However, the review presses that the UK is losing ground as other countries push on more aggressively and we need to act quickly to fully realise the opportunity. Repeatedly namechecked throughout the report was the US’ Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s Fit for 55, although it recognises that channelling huge sums of public money is not the only way to gain market share in green technologies.

2. The review identifies areas of reform to ensure a more cost effective and efficient transition.
   1. The impact that consistent delays and policy uncertainty are having on investor confidence are consistently highlighted throughout – e.g. streamlining planning decisions for offshore wind. To begin addressing the impact of these delays, the report set out 25 of the recommendations that need to be delivered by 2025 (20 by 2025), but also emphasises the simple need to deliver on what has already been committed – e.g. business models or key co