Renewables contributed to 38% of the EU’s electricity last year, as fossil fuels fell to 37%.

The UK is yet to publish figures for 2020, but BEIS has claimed that renewable generation capacity grew by 1.2GW between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020. Whilst renewables made up 40.2% of generation up to September 2020.

In January the Government outlined responses to the Future Homes Standard.

By 2025, all homes and businesses will have to meet new energy efficiency standards, designed to reduce consumption and lower bills.

These include requirements for windows, heat pumps, lighting, cooling systems and extensions.

Under the standard, new homes must be ‘zero carbon ready’. They are expected to produce 75% lower emissions compared to current builds.

Meanwhile, the Government has received criticism from both environmental and business groups for delaying the Environmental Bill for the second time.

The bill intends to set post Brexit standards on agriculture, air quality, water quality and biodiversity.

Although environmental and business groups sympathise with pandemic challenges, they are concerned about the UK’s ability to deliver a range of environmental policy pledges without the support of the bill.