Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to push Britain into significantly stricter net zero commitments as part of negotiations to rejoin the EU’s internal electricity market, a move that has triggered accusations from critics that the government is surrendering control over UK energy policy.
The Prime Minister and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, are in talks with Brussels over closer alignment with the EU’s electricity trading system, which treats the bloc’s 27 member states and Norway as a single, integrated power market. Britain left the system following Brexit in 2021.
However, EU officials have made clear that re-entry would require the UK to sign up to the bloc’s wider renewable energy and decarbonisation framework. That would mean committing not just to cleaning up electricity generation, but to accelerating decarbonisation across heating, transport and industry.
In effect, Britain would need to double its existing net zero ambition. The EU currently requires 42.5 per cent of total energy consumption to come from renewable sources by 2030, with an aspiration to reach 45 per cent. The UK’s current figure stands at around 22 per cent.
The potential commitment was revealed in a technical document quietly published on the Cabinet Office website, which states that any electricity agreement should include “an indicative global target for the share of renewable energy in the gross final consumption of energy in the United Kingdom”, comparable to that of the EU to ensure a “level playing field”.
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