ADE warns against two tier approach to net zero
10 Apr 2025
Factories and business that lie outside government-supported industry clusters are being overlooked from net zero transition, warns a leading clean energy organisation.
The Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) claims that this could leave businesses currently responsible for half the UK’s existing workplace emissions facing greater costs and decreases in available skilled labour.
And, it adds, the consequences could be that the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people working outside industrial clusters could be placed at long-term risk.
CEO Caroline Bragg said: “The government has no plan to decarbonise half of industrial emissions. That’s 770,000 livelihoods on the line.
“Our report shows how co-locating renewables and storage at industrial sites can and should cut bills.”
In its new report, Help Industry to Help Net Zero, ADE claims 78% of industrial energy demand could be electrified using existing technology, substantially reducing emissions.
Without this, it charges, those businesses located outside industrial clusters face “crippling electricity costs, grid delays and a lack of skilled labour, leaving the UK trailing global competitors”.
Added Bragg: “Ministers must act now, starting with an Electrification Business Plan to match support for hydrogen and carbon capture.”
She called on government to adopt the three key recommendations from the organisation’s report.
These include: an electrification business plan to fund dispersed sites on a par with clusters; regional energy strategic plans to pair factories with on-site renewables and storage in grid-congested zones; and energy pricing reforms “to stop punishing firms for ditching gas”.
The ADE added that, with some countries exceeding the UK investment in industrial electrification, boosting the process would be a ‘lifeline’ for jobs and grid strain and help ensure net zero were met.
