Chris Stark

Absent on jobs is how the transition overall can be well-managed. Employment will grow in many areas, but it will shrink in others, so skills support and retraining very important. Employment impacts – particularly in manufacturing industries – can be regionally concentrated.

The 2030 commitment to phase-out sales of petrol and diesel cars and vans is *massive*. It’s a transport commitment, a consumer commitment, and an industry commitment. Crucially, it will drive fundamental change in the whole energy system. So its impact can’t be overstated.

We haven't modelled a separate target for plug-in hybrids, but it really needs to be a niche thing after 2030. By 2030, 40% of cars on the road will need to be zero carbon, to be on track for Net Zero. A big challenge to get infrastructure ready and consumer incentives right.

We’ll see 600,000 heat pumps a year deployed by 2028. That’s significant – may not be the deployment rate we need to get to, but it’s a good start. I understand the Future Homes Standard will come in from 2023, which is great. Good that the Green Homes Grant has been extended

The hydrogen and CCS commitments are decent too – very much in line with the idea that solutions must be piloted at scale. We lack the info on the market mechanisms that will deliver commercial investment though. I'm hoping the fabled Energy White Paper will fill the gaps here.

I was expecting more on nuclear, so that is notable by its absence. Perhaps that’s for another day? I think I learned more from Rolls Royce a few days ago about new nuclear than I did from today’s statement. No words on Sizewell was a surprise.

On woodland creation, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year is now a real Net Zero commitment – still at the bottom end of what we think we’ll need, but great to see. Lots of new employment too - which can begin immediately.

But, oh boy, we have to reach a better, more grown-up discussion of costs. Some of the commentary today has been woeful on this. Govt probably *undersold* the investment impact of these plans (a first). Private offshore wind investment alone would dwarf the £12bn they refer to.