PM sets target of 2035 for achieving 100pc clean energy sources

BORIS Johnson has said he wants all of the UK’S electricity to come from green energy sources by 2035 to tackle the climate crisis and end the nation’s dependency on imported fossil fuels.

The Prime Minister said yesterday he thinks the nation can get to “complete clean energy production” including renewable sources and nuclear by the middle of the next decade. He argued the move would lower energy prices and end reliance on overseas sources of power, as a cost-of-living crisis looms in part because of the soaring price of natural gas.

Mr Johnson confirmed the ambition to reporters as he visited a Network Rail site in Manchester, where he is hosting the Tory party conference.

He said: “The advantage of that is that it will mean that, for the first time, the UK is not dependent on hydrocarbons coming from overseas with all the vagaries in hydrocarbon prices and the risk that poses for people’s pockets and for the consumer. We will be reliant on our own clean power generation which will help us also to keep costs down.”

Mr Johnson noted the policy of phasing out petrol and diesel cars by 2030, when a ban on new cars and vans powered wholly on the fossil fuels will be introduced.

Raising the progress in harnessing wind power and the potential of other renewable sources, the Prime Minister said that “we think that we can get to complete clean energy production by 2035”. The Government is now expected to commit to a massive investment programme in renewable and nuclear power.

Greenpeace UK’S chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: “All senior politicians have now realised that gas needs to be taken out of the electricity system. That realisation is to be welcomed, as is the 2035 decarbonisation target.”