All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group Co-Chair Mark Pawsey MP is hosting a session to discuss competitive decarbonisation of industry.

Speakers:

• John Penrose MP, Chair of the Commission for Carbon Competitiveness
• Jo Gideon MP, Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central and member of the Commission for Carbon Competitiveness
• Katherine Mountain, Head of Low Carbon Products, DESNZ
• Jenny Rowland, Deputy Director of the Energy and Transport Tax, HMT 
• Dave Dalton, CEO of British Glass and Chair of the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG)

This event is the last in a fourth-part series on the Energy Intensive Industries and their transition to net zero, in collaboration with the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG). 

The Government is currently consulting on potential policy measures to mitigate future carbon leakage risks. Carbon leakage is defined as a situation that might occur if, due to the costs related to climate policies, businesses were to transfer their production to other countries with lower emission constraints. A result of this situation could be an increase in total emissions. Generally, the risk of carbon leakage is assumed to be higher in energy-intensive industries.

The intention behind the Government’s consultation “Addressing carbon leakage risk to support decarbonisation” is to ensure that UK industry has the optimal policy environment to decarbonise. Potential policies include a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), mandatory product standards (MPS), and other policy measures to help grow the market for low carbon products, as well as emissions reporting which could support the implementation of potential mitigation policies. The consultation has become more important now that EU has reached a political agreement on the implementation of a CBAM in December last year.

The purpose of this parliamentary session is to inform this consultation (closing date 22 June) and hear from the recently formed cross-party Commission for Carbon Competitiveness, chaired by John Penrose MP. The Commission was set up to explore how the UK can reach net zero without undermining the competitiveness of British industry. Having gathered evidence from a cross-sector experts and engaged with MPs across the House of Commons, the Commission is due to release a report with recommendations on the matter shortly.