Don't cut low carbon technology funding, says CCC

The UK government must protect funding for a suite of low-carbon technologies or "risk them getting stuck in a so-called ‘valley of death’, where development is curtailed", the government's Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has warned.

In a report to the government's chief scientific advisor, Sir John Beddington, the CCC says any cuts in current funding levels (£550 million per year) and to future commitments in areas such as carbon capture and storage demonstration and electric vehicles would "increase the risk of missing carbon budgets and would see the UK losing out on critical opportunities to build a green economy. Once financial pressures have eased, increased funding will be required in specific cases (such as marine technologies and electric vehicles), and for low-carbon innovation more generally, over the next decade."

The UK spend on energy-related research and development, as a percenatge of GDP, "lags behind other developed countries", warns the CCC. "This situation is even more worrying in the context of global investment in technology development that is low relative to benchmarks proposed by the Stern Review, the International Energy Agency, and the EU." The committee also says there is "a lack of clarity in the institutional landscape that supports low-carbon innovation" and that the funding environment is "complex and can be difficult for business to navigate".

• CCC report
• press release