The irony of Coutinho’s attack on Labour’s “made in China” energy policy
Claire Coutinho is the energy secretary and not a very good one if comments by her to the Telegraph over the Easter weekend are to be believed. In an interview with Edward Malnick, Ms Coutinho said that Labour’s energy plans would make the UK “over-reliant” on Chinese metals, cables and batteries. As Continho explained, “At the moment, there is one global dominant player when it comes to things like critical minerals or batteries and that’s China.”
She continued: “So if you’re saying that we are going to have this unfeasible target, which no other major economy would have, what you’re ultimately sending out to the world is that we’re willing to pay whatever price you will put to us, which will see costs implode, you also don’t have time for the supply chains here to develop, which means you’ll be reliant on China…So that means that what Labour are putting forward is a “made in China” transition, but I want one that’s made in Britain.”
Aside from the fact that Coutinho doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the word “implode” (indeed, it would be great if costs within the energy sector did implode), readers may recall that wanting an energy transition made in Britain is very similar to the Labour Party’s policy of magicking up competitively-priced renewable technology in the UK through the creation of an Uber-Quango called Great British Energy. More recently, and as previously covered, the Labour party has now begun the process of growing up when it comes to energy policy and it was hoped that the Conservative party would continue down their current, reality-based path.
Alas, Claire Coutinho, despite her academic (Oxford) and business (Merril Lynch) background, which the Telegraph is careful to point out, does not appear to be a serious person. To claim that Labour party policy would place the UK in geopolitical danger is to ignore the obvious fact that – as she almost points out – this is the case already.
The UK is a leading player in the international renewable energy market because of our location (readers may have noticed that it’s often quite windy in the Eastern Atlantic) and because of government policies, including vast subsidies, that Coutinho’s party has implemented over the past 14 years. However, we can be absolutely certain, and Coutinho knows this, that the overwhelming majority of wind turbines installed in recent years in UK waters are wholly built in China and the same goes for solar panels. Why? Because as Coutinho herself says above, China is the “one dominant player” in renewable technologies and if you want technologically sound wind turbines and solar panels that are cheap and won’t whack up the cost of your project and thereby energy bills, you’re obliged to head to China. As a good capitalist, Coutinho must know that this is the reality of modern supply chains.
Furthermore, aside from trying to invent a reason to be paranoid about China in the future rather than right now, Coutinho’s argument is also factually wrong. While she is right to highlight China’s domination of global rare minerals production, she is wrong about battery technology where Tesla (US) and Fluence (EU / US) are perfectly capable of looking after themselves as they battle for market share with China’s Sungrow and Huawei. Even more importantly, the battle within battery storage is less about fabrication but much more about technological advances. If Tesla or Fluence can win that battle and produce better, longer-lasting batteries than their rivals, then they will win.
Because this is about technology rather than industrial capacity, this could be a productive place for our government to invest rather than trying to take voters for fools. Is it really possible that Coutinho and Conservative Central Office really think that the Great British public are so stupid that they will easily be scared into voting Tory by a difference of policy that amounts to one party having an aspirational Net Zero target of 2030 versus the other party having a Net Zero aspirational target date of 2035?
It’s an election year, so let’s give Coutinho the benefit of the doubt – that she was doing her boss and CCO’s bidding for the sake of a decent Easter weekend headline. But let’s also lament the fact that it’s come to this: a secretary of state making arguments that she knows to be false, and not for the first time, rather than, you know, getting on with the job in the remaining months left to her.
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