Darren Jones MP: Treasury needs to take net zero seriously
Net zero transition offers UK “huge opportunity” for British businesses and communities, but the Treasury needs to take it seriously, Darren Jones MP says.
By Kathy Grenville
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The net zero transition offers UK “huge opportunity” for British businesses and communities, but the Treasury needs to take it seriously, Darren Jones MP remarks.
Speaking with ECIU’s Sepi Golzari-Munro as part of the ‘ECIU Talks’ series [1], Darren Jones, MP for Bristol North West and Chair of the House of Commons Business Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee points to the ‘culture and tone’ of the Treasury that he says needs to shift to align with the Government’s net zero ambition.
Jones said: “The Treasury needs to take net zero seriously, and so far it hasn’t. Rishi Sunak, as Chancellor, has shown pretty low levels of interest in the net zero transition.
“And I think there was a fundamental flaw in the Treasury’s recent review, where it was just looking at the costs, and not the opportunities for the country.”
View clip here.
On the Chancellor’s scrapping of the industrial strategy earlier in 2021, Jones argues: “the idea that the government has an industrial strategy is fiction. But it needs one as part of the net zero transition.
“Because, of course, if you are in the steel industry, or the aerospace industry, or car manufacturer industry – huge employers in the UK – you’re going to be making some really huge investment decisions to move off of fossil fuel-based heating, steel, or engine production. And you need government support to do that."
View clip here.
Darren Jones also discusses gaps in delivery, trade deal deficits and why the scale and pace of change to get to net zero by 2050 require bold policy, confident politics, and a focus on educating and supporting the public to understand the choices that need to be made.
He goes on to distinguish Labour and Conservative approaches while defending the Labour leadership’s approach to climate and environment.
This is the second in the ECIU Talks series and the full interview can be accessed here. It follows the first in the series interview with Rt. Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP in September.