“It’s a good thing that the United States is taking climate change seriously” and its massive aid plan also aims to “catch up”, commented the Chancellor of the Exchequer during a hearing at the British Parliament Treasury Committee.
Because “even after the inflation reduction plan” or IRA, the official name of a set of measures aimed in particular at stimulating green energy production in the United States, the United Kingdom “spends a higher share of GDP on the energy transition than the United States, but in a different way”, such as by setting a price on carbon, argued Mr. Hunt .
“We are world leaders in offshore wind energy and almost 40% of our electricity comes from renewable sources, this is the second renewable energy industry in Europe,” the minister further argued. However, he said he was aware that the United Kingdom must “stay competitive” in the face of the “369 billion dollars in subsidies” of President Joe Biden’s plan.
We believe that 15 years after the financial crisis is the right time to re-examine the “ringfencing” banking regime, but we have also been very clear that we are not going to forget the lessons.
This involves “risks and we need to mitigate them. This does not necessarily mean matching every grant, but developing an overall aid plan so that (…) the United Kingdom remains attractive” for investment , Mr. Hunt insisted.
Billions of dollars of investments planned
The US President’s major climate plan provides billions of dollars of investment in the fight against climate change, in particular for companies manufacturing electric car batteries or solar panels in the United States.
It is generating a lot of concern in Europe, with EU member states in particular fearing that multinationals will question their investments in Europe to take advantage of US aid. Asked also Wednesday about the government’s plan to question the separation between retail banking and finance activities in banking establishments, one of the legacies of the post-financial crisis regulations of 2008, Mr. Hunt kicked in hit.
“We believe that 15 years after the financial crisis, it is the right time to review the regime of separation” of banking activities (known as “ringfencing”) but we have also been very clear that we are not going to forget the lessons “of 2008, said the minister . The past few weeks have been marked by a series of bank failures in the United States, which set markets on fire, put pressure on bank assets and precipitated the fall of the Swiss giant Credit Suisse.
With AFP.
