Responding to Government’s commitment today to reducing carbon emissions by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025, Director General of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Tom Foulkes said:
“We welcome the Government’s restatement of its commitment to the climate change targets however to achieve this we will need to attract in hefty investment’s into renewable energy projects and low carbon technologies to decarbonise the energy sector. This will require a robust and effective reform of the electricity market to sufficiently reduce risk for investors as well as long-term changes to the regulatory and policy framework to enable the construction sector to deliver efficient, timely solutions.
”Government must recognise that even the most theoretically robust reforms to the investment environment will fail to be effective if construction is hindered by ongoing practical issues such as planning delays, specialist skills shortages and a stop-start approach to infrastructure development."