UK Labour Party releases election manifesto with clean power pledges

The UK Labour Party is committed to working with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by the end of the decade and ultimately make Britain “a clean energy superpower.”

This commitment is included in the party’s manifesto for the 2024 general election scheduled for July 4, 2024. The document was published on Thursday.

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Labour also says it will invest in carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and marine energy, and support long-term energy storage expansion. The framework for its energy and climate policies will be established by a new Energy Independence Act.

As previously reported, Labour intends to create Great British Energy, a publicly-owned clean power company headquartered in Scotland. The manifesto reiterates this while also mentioning that the party will capitalise the new company with GBP 8.3 billion (USD 10.6bn/EUR 9.8bn) over the next parliament.

“Great British Energy will partner with energy companies, local authorities, and co-operatives to install thousands of clean power projects, through a combination of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower projects. We will invite communities to come forward with projects, and work with local leaders and devolved governments to ensure local people benefit directly from this energy production,” it says further.

Among the other measures prepared by the party are an energy system reform and the introduction of a carbon border adjustment mechanism.

Meanwhile, the party has pledged to ensure the long-term security of the nuclear energy sector by extending the lifetime of existing plants and maintain a strategic reserve of gas power stations to guarantee the security of supply.

Labour will not revoke existing oil and gas licences but will not issue new ones to explore new fields “because they will not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure, and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis.” It will not be granting new coal licences either and plans to ban fracking for good.

Moreover, the party intends to close the loopholes in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies. “Companies have benefitted from enormous profits not because of their ingenuity or investment, but because of an energy shock which raised prices for British families. Labour will therefore extend the sunset clause in the Energy Profits Levy until the end of the next parliament. We will also increase the rate of the levy by three percentage points, as well as removing the unjustifiably generous investment allowances. Labour will also retain the Energy Security Investment Mechanism,” the manifesto reads.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.278/EUR 1.185)