Downing Street has set out its plan to cut carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050, and it is not going to be cheap.

Phasing out gas boilers over the next decade and investing in home insulation, electric car charging points, and nuclear power plants are all part of Boris Johnson’s vision for ‘Green Britain’.

His Net Zero strategy was set out yesterday and promises to secure 440,000 well-paid jobs in green industries and secure £90billion in private investments by 2030.

But the overall bill of the plan is expected to exceed £1trillion over the next 30 years, the Treasury has warned.

It is yet to give an exact breakdown of how costs will be spread, but higher taxes and consumer prices are expected to contribute to the total sum.

For example, replacing boilers with low-carbon electric heat pumps would cost £10,000 on average and not everyone will benefit from a voucher scheme covering half that sum.

Phasing out petrol and diesel cars is also expected to lump extra costs on households, along with new taxes such as road pricing.

Although the Government is counting on costs dropping over the coming years and levies are expected to be raised for gas and lowered for electricity as an incentive.

Plans to incentivise mortgage lenders to prioritise properties with better energy ratings could also force people to spend thousands in order to re-mortgage or sell their homes.

However, the Government and environmental campaigners have all said the ultimate cost of doing nothing will be far higher as the impact of climate change takes hold.

Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson said the final bill would be ‘well over £1 trillion’, spread over the next 30 years.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘What is interesting is that the Treasury’s view is that most of that won’t come from us the taxpayer, it will come via us as consumers or from industry though private investment.

‘But this is a manageable cost because £1trillion is a lot, but over 30 years, and given the amount we invest in all sorts of things in any case, it is manageable. But it is a pretty substantial sum over that period.’

The Prime Minister pledged that Britain could meet its net zero targets ‘without so much as a hair shirt in sight’.

But a document published by Chancellor Rishi Sunak warns that under current plans, the Treasury would face a £37billion-a-year black hole due to a loss of revenue from fuel duty.

It said that if more money were needed to help meet the UK’s green targets ‘additional taxes’ or spending cuts may be required, the Times reports.

The document adds: ‘Depending on choices made by the government the transition to net zero could have potentially significant implications for the UK’s fiscal position.

‘If there is to be additional public investment to support decarbonisation, it may need to be funded through additional taxes or reprioritised from other areas of government spending.’

Ruling out additional borrowing to fund these goals, the Treasury added: ‘Seeking to pass the costs on to future taxpayers through borrowing would not be consistent with intergenerational fairness nor fiscal sustainability. This could also push up the economic cost of the transition.’

However this morning Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisted that moving to net zero carbon emissions would not damage the economy

He told Times Radio: ‘If we look at the green agenda, the transition broadly, we’ll know that the cost of inaction actually could be greater than actually doing things, he said.

‘The economic opportunity, in terms of the transition, is huge and that’s what I’m focused on. ultimately, that’s what’s going to drive huge amounts of prosperity.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article