President Joe Biden’s package of measures to promote clean tech will aid the global fight against climate change, the US ambassador to the UK Jane Hartley said, pushing back against suggestions it may damage British and European industries.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden’s package of measures to promote clean tech will aid the global fight against climate change, the US ambassador to the UK Jane Hartley said, pushing back against suggestions it may damage British and European industries.
Biden’s plan enshrined in the Inflation Reduction Act offers subsidies and tax credits to the tune of $370 billion for the production of electric vehicles, sustainable aviation fuel and renewable energy. Its incentives for domestic production led UK Energy Secretary Grant Shapps last month to describe the act as “dangerous” because it risked triggering a race to protectionism.
“This was not meant to hurt our allies,” Hartley, who took on her role in May and previously served as US ambassador to France, told Bloomberg on Friday, citing Biden’s remarks.
The act will result in “huge” amounts of money pouring into research and development, Hartley said. “That’s going to benefit the world because you’re going to have green technologies that are cheaper because of what that bill is doing.”
The legislation passed in the US last year has angered allies in Europe and Asia who say it risks cutting them out of the US market, particularly for automobiles. Fearing getting squeezed in the middle, the UK has also privately urged the European Union not to harm British companies when devising its own measures in response to the US law.
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The UK, for its part, sees no need for immediate subsidies to counter the IRA or any European policies advanced to respond to them.
Shapps told Bloomberg last month that the Biden administration has assured Britain it will “take the rough edges off” the package so that the UK isn’t harmed. Hartley said she couldn’t elaborate on that because she was not part of that discussion, but pointed to the ripple effect the US law will have worldwide.
“It’s going to change how businesses work, how consumers work, and I think it’s going to have a global footprint in bringing down the cost of energy for everybody,” Hartley said, citing the example of research into green aviation fuel. “That’s not just going to be used by a plane in the US, that’s going to be used throughout the world.”
–With assistance from Julius Domoney.
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