UN calls for UK PM to intensify commitment to green energy post-Brexit
The new UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, must increase the country’s use of green energy despite the uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote, according to the United Nation’s leading energy official. Rachel Kyte, CEO of the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All project, said that cleaner energy would boost employment and benefit the poorest in the country. The UK’s carbon and energy goals have been agreed in partnership with the EU , so are likely to be one of the policy areas most affected by Brexit.

Theresa May’s government must increase its commitment to greening the country’s energy supply, despite the “distraction and disruption” caused by the referendum, the top energy official of the United Nations has urged.

Rachel Kyte, chief executive of the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, and special representative of the UN secretary-general, said generating more energy from cleaner sources would boost jobs and the economy at a time of uncertainty, and help poorer people the most.

“This is about bringing better services, better quality services and jobs to the communities in this country that desperately need it,” she told the Guardian. “The evidence was [under previous energy policies] that this can happen and we should go back and make sure that whoever ends up running the government doesn’t abandon that.”

Kyte, who is from the UK and holds a global remit, said: “Just because 52% of the population voted in a referendum to leave [the EU] doesn’t mean that we throw out our plans for growth and development, [including] commitment to a greener growth which benefits poorer people as much as it does the rest of the country.”

Energy and environment policy are one of the main policy areas affected by Brexit, because the UK’s carbon and energy targets are in partnership with the EU, and the energy supply is dominated by European companies. However, the issues have received little attention in the referendum campaigns and since the result.

The government has insisted its policy outlook on the issues remains intact, with Tory hopeful and energy minister Andrea Leadsom, telling an audience in Westminster, days before pulling out of the race, that she supported the UK’s climate targets. Amber Rudd, energy secretary, has also said the government’s commitments would remain.

However, in the negotiations over the terms of Brexit that must soon follow the formal takeover of Theresa May as prime minister and her appointment of a new cabinet, energy and the environment are still likely to be a long way down the list, as immigration, finance and the status of EU citizens in the UK and British subjects abroad are certain to dominate.

This may leave energy investors hanging on for months or even years as they puzzle out the implications of the terms on which the UK leaves, and what previous UK energy policies and EU regulations will be carried over.

Rachel Kyte, the chief executive of the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. Photograph: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

Kyte, speaking before the tumultuous events of the last few days, called for greater clarity in energy policy as a matter of urgency. “For any government in charge, just creating certainty is what’s going to be important for those kinds of [green energy] initiatives to flourish.”

The turmoil following the referendum was “at best a distraction, at worst a disruption”, she warned, and being adrift in energy policy would have a knock-on effect on jobs, growth, energy security and climate change. “We have got urgent, disciplined, focused business to do, to ratify [the agreement reached last year in] Paris, and to drive greener growth. Any government has to be focused on making sure that growth is greener, and cleaner, and doesn’t leave anybody behind.”

Cleaning up energy generation was also a matter of social policy, she said. “Energy poverty exists across this country, in inner cities as in rural areas, and people who can’t afford to pay their bills and therefore don’t switch their stove on, don’t switch the lights on, who are living in really cold damp conditions,” she explained. “Energy poverty is something that needs to be attacked, domestically, not just internationally.”

In the midst of insecurity and uncertainty following the referendum, going for green energy could offer new industrial opportunities, Kyte added. “Green growth can be job-rich, you see that in the US and you see that in Europe.”

This should also benefit those less well-off, she said: “Poorer people are vulnerable to bad quality air [which is often concentrated in run-down areas of cities]. They are vulnerable to disruptions in industry that take jobs away, and need to have the skills and be able to manage a transition to the industries where new good jobs are going to be created.”

But she drew on international examples to show that the UK’s poorer communities - many of which voted for Brexit, particularly in areas that have suffered sharp losses in traditional industrial jobs – could be regenerated.

“I think we know a lot about how to support vulnerable communities through transitions. We did it when the Berlin Wall fell and the Iron Curtain came down. It means we have to invest in them and they can’t be left behind. We need green growth and job-rich inclusive growth. Those two can go hand in hand.”