ADBA responds to Budget 2020

ADBA responds to Budget 2020

Responding to the 2020 Budget delivered this afternoon, Charlotte Morton, Chief Executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA), said:

“Whilst there is an understandable focus on addressing the coronavirus, climate change is a far greater threat, as Prof Brian Hoskins, founding director of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change, highlighted yesterday. The urgency of tackling it requires us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to zero as soon as possible.

As our recent report ‘Biomethane: the Pathway to 2030’ demonstrated, there is no net zero without biogas. Whilst it is good news that there is commitment to support biomethane injection into the gas grid post March 2021, the government’s ambition to see a tripling of the current level of production by 2030 is only around 38% of the AD industry’s potential.  
 

In the year the UK hosts COP26, we encourage the government to treble its ambition so that our industry is able to fully support the decarbonisation of agriculture, heat, transport and waste management to reduce total UK emissions by 6% whilst also creating 30,000 new green jobs throughout the UK by 2030, and we look forward to continuing to work with Government to this end.”
 

• The Budget introduces a third allocation of Tariff Guarantees under the Non-domestic RHI (NDRHI) that will be available for all technologies that have been eligible for the previous two allocations.
• The Budget also introduces a Green Gas Levy on gas suppliers to support green gas injection to the grid with the aim of accelerating the decarbonisation of our gas supply. This is expected to be implemented in autumn 2021.
• The Budget allocates £270m in total for a Green Heat Network Fund to run from 2022 to 2025, to follow on from the Heat Network Investment Project.

We will continue to work closely with Government in the coming months to continue showcasing the wide-reaching benefits of AD for the environment and the economy and to influence the outcomes of the National Infrastructure Strategy – now promised in Spring – the Spending Review and the Treasury’s Net Zero funding review, as well as responding to the imminent consultations on the RHI and green gas levy.

– ENDS –

For further information, contact:
Giulia Ceccarelli, External Affairs Adviser 
email: giulia.ceccarelli@adbioresources.org 

Notes to editors

• There are currently 674 AD plants operating in the UK generating 1.2 billion m3 of biomethane, enough to heat 1 million homes each year, and 40 million tonnes of digestate for use as a biofertiliser.  The industry currently helps reduce UK annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1% and employs over 3,500 people in the UK.  
• At full potential, the AD industry could reduce the UK’s total annual emissions by 6% by 2030; fuel UK’s bus fleet six-times over or 97% of HGVs; and directly create over 30,000 new green jobs, with another 30,000 indirect jobs created as a result of the industry’s growth.
• The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) is the trade association for the UK anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas industry.  ADBA’s vision is to see the full potential of the UK AD industry realised so it can help the UK achieve its emissions targets and other policy goals, creating a truly circular economy. www.adbioresources.org @adbioresources