The US started it with Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the EU growled a bit then followed suit, the UK sat it out. Perhaps we now know why.

The UK did indeed look like it was stuck in first gear as the US and then EU invested in clean tech deployment and made tax concession to do so, and with the UK’s green industrial strategy delayed until the autumn there might be some truth in that.

The IRA in particular has been successful in luring capital intensive plants to North America, for example Volkswagen placed a new plant in Canada rather than the EU, ready for the expanding US market.

With the UK's growing net-zero economy and its global reputation as a climate leader, especially in offshore wind, it always seemed odd that the UK was slow off the mark.

Perhaps the answer lies in the just signed Sunak-Biden trade agreement, and although not a complete trade deal, the terms as understood might certainly have caused the Government to wait until the details were clear.

The Atlantic Declaration includes commitments on easing protectionist barriers, industry ties and critical raw materials. As such it mitigates some of the issues caused by the Inflation Reduction Act, allowing UK companies to access the subsidies.

The agreement on critical minerals also considerably eases the barriers in electric vehicle battery trading and the import and export of the materials used to produce EV batteries and solar panels.

Will the Declaration change things back in the UK’s favour? That, as they say, remains to be seen.

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