EC Report Errs on UK Subsidies

The European Commission (EC) is to revise a consultants' report on UK renewables subsidies, following a successful challenge from the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the latter said February 22.

GWPF energy editor John Constable pointed out that the EC’s recent study of the effect of climate and other policies on international competitiveness contained a substantive error. The report claimed that annual levies on UK consumers in 2016 for subsidies to renewable electricity were €1.57bn ($1.78bn), whereas the correct figure is closer to €7bn. 

The consultants have confirmed the mistake in writing, saying Constable was correct "that the largest part of the other subsidies was from the Renewables Obligation and that these were not allocated to ‘financed by end users’ as they should have been. Thank you for spotting this error, we are correcting the figures and expect a revised report to be online soon."

Correcting this error will "certainly have significant consequences for all sections of the report relying on calculations of Renewable Energy support costs for electricity consumers in 2016. Because of its magnitude it is likely to have consequences for the study’s estimates of the competitiveness impact on the EU28 overall as compared to the G20," said the GWPF.

"This impact is already estimated to be very significant, with both domestic and industrial electricity prices being very substantially above those in the G20, with EU domestic prices being more than double those in the G20 and industrial prices some 50% higher," the lobby group continued.

Constable said:"The study is an important and major statement on the economic consequences of the EU’s energy and climate policies, and it is crucial that such work is as accurate as possible."