Cost of Net Zero and who pays? HM Treasury Review - a possible market failure for some!
How the cost of Net Zero could penalise rural communities. Dr Alan Jones, PhD. CEng, FIET. 1 Summary In a previous paper, dated August 2020, which presented the background to Net Zero, mention was made of the hurried nature at which Net Zero legislation was enacted together with the absence of any cost-benefit analysis before being passed by Parliament in July 2019. The paper did, however, go on to say HM Treasury planned to issue a retrospective report on the cost of Net Zero in Autumn 2020, and that has now happened. However, when HM Treasury published their report [i] on the 17 December 2020 it turned out not to be the expected final report, but instead an interim report laying out the background and remit, and inviting stakeholder feedback during January 2021. December 2020 also saw other Net Zero activity from a range of actors: the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published the Sixth Climate Budget [ii] on the 9 December while Ofgem launched the Greener, Fairer, E