UK energy usage falls in sign of ‘declining economy'

Telegraph

3 days ago

Andy Brown, Energy Institute president, said: 'This plays into an overall de-industrialisation of the UK economy that has been occurring over decades. Energy costs are one element in the equation.'
Critics have argued that net zero is fuelling the problem by adding green costs to bills. Chris Wright, the US energy secretary, has argued that net zero is 'impoverishing your own citizens in a delusion that this is somehow going to make the world a better place'.
Richard Tice, Reform UK energy spokesman, said the energy consumption figures were a 'disaster' for the UK.
He said: 'What these figures highlight in an economy in decline. There is a direct link between a country's energy consumption trends and its prosperity. If energy consumption is growing then, generally, so is the economy. And if consumption is falling then the economy is likely to be in decline.'
Net zero by 2050 'bankrupting Britain'
The fall in energy consumption last year is part of a long-term trend. Total UK energy supply fell by an average 2.1pc each year from 2014-2024, according to the latest Statistical Review of World Energy from the Energy Institute.
Andrew Bowie, Conservative shadow energy spokesman, said: 'As our European competitors increase their energy consumption, Britain's is in decline, fuelled by impossible net zero targets that are crippling British industry.
'Every day we get more evidence of what everyone but Ed Miliband already knows – that net zero by 2050 is impossible without bankrupting Britain.
'The Conservatives are the only party that has been honest by recognising that net zero by 2050 is impossible without making hard working families worse off.'
Earlier this week the Government launched its Industrial Strategy, which promised to lower electricity costs for select industries in a bid to halt de-industrialisation.
However, Mr Brown cautioned: 'The UK government's Industrial Strategy offers reduced electricity costs to some industries but industry utilises a large amount of gas as well as electricity. And since the war in Ukraine gas prices are fundamentally higher. This cost is hard to address.'
Clean power strengths
Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has said that Britain's industrial future will be based on a boom in low-carbon electricity rather than fossil fuels like gas.
At the launch of the Government's Industrial Strategy he said clean energy was 'the economic opportunity of the 21st century' that would release a 'tidal wave of jobs'.
He added: 'For too long high electricity costs have held back British businesses, as a result of our reliance on gas sold on volatile international markets. Our Industrial Strategy will unlock the potential of British industry by slashing industrial electricity prices in key sectors.
'We're also doubling down on our clean power strengths with increased investment in growth industries from offshore wind to nuclear. This will deliver on our clean power mission and Plan for Change to bring down bills for households and businesses for good.'
The Energy Institute review found that, despite the UK's decline, demand for energy in the rest of the world is surging, rising by 2pc last year alone to a new high of 592 exajoules. An exajoule roughly equates to 174m barrels of oil. The UK consumed about 6.4 exajoules last year.
Fossil fuel consumption was part of that rise, with usage surging despite almost every country claiming to be fighting climate change. Oil consumption rose by up to 1pc while gas increased by 2.5pc. Use of coal, the dirtiest major fuel, hit a new high of 9.2bn tonnes – up from 8.1bn tonnes in 2014.