UK fiscal watchdog puts cost of reaching net zero at £1.4 trillion 

Domestic Air Source Heat Pump [image credit: UK Alternative Energy]

Upending both the national economy and personal finances for no noticeable climate benefit is an ‘investment’ in alarmist-speak. How much longer will voters turn a blind eye to these reckless policies?
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The cost of the UK reaching net zero by 2050 could be as high as £1.4 trillion, according to figures released today by Britain’s fiscal watchdog, says CityAM.

The UK economy will require over £1 trillion in investment over the next three decades to hit the government’s target of making Britain carbon neutral, estimates included in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest Fiscal Risks report revealed.

The fiscal impact of achieving net zero in an early action scenario would add 21 per cent of GDP to public sector net debt by 2050-51, over £450bn in today’s terms.

But, this is smaller than the amount of additional net debt the government took on in response to the pandemic.

The OBR said the forecasts are based on the assumption the government bears a quarter of the cost of the transition.

Staggeringly, the report said that if the UK took no action to curb emissions, the debt to GDP ratio could sky rocket to a record high of 289 per cent.

The projections were included alongside the fiscal watchdog’s dossier on the biggest threats it thinks the UK’s public finances are likely to face in the coming year.

The report warned that Britain is a facing a “catastrophic” triple threat of the “coronavirus pandemic, climate change, and the cost of government debt.”

The OBR warned that “the arrival of two major economic shocks in quick succession need not constitute a trend, but there are reasons to believe that advanced economies may be increasingly exposed to large, and potentially catastrophic, risks.”

“As countries’ exposure to large, and potentially catastrophic, risks increases, so do the associated risks to their public finances” it added.

Continued here.