Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to report entitled Financing the Future: Energy, published by the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association on 26 February 2024, what steps her Department plans to take to encourage private capital investment in green energy.

The UK saw £60bn of investment in 2023, meaning that since 2010 the UK has seen £300bn of public and private investment into low carbon sectors. The Powering Up Britain Plan, backed by substantial government funding, seeks to attract private capital for green energy.

We've bolstered investor confidence with announcements on the UK Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) sector and the Hydrogen Strategy. In December 2023, we unveiled Europe's largest simultaneous commercial-scale green hydrogen projects, supporting 125MW in the inaugural Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR1).

We’ve allocated over £1 billion for the flagship Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme's Allocation Round 6 (AR6) and £1.1 billion to the Green Industries Growth Accelerator, to support the expansion of domestic green manufacturing capacity and strengthen clean energy supply chains.