Google’s former boss has warned Sir Keir Starmer that he will not meet his 2030 clean energy target unless he fixes UK regulations.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s former chief executive, said he believes Sir Keir can speed up the regulatory bureaucracy to ensure the government meets its target of decarbonising electricity by 2030.
But he said regulation is currently “killing you”.
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Speaking to Sir Keir at the International Investment Summit in London, Mr Schmidt said: “Democracies, especially something as old as this, have so many ways for people to say no.
“I would much rather – and I think the business world would much rather – have a single person who can say yes or no… and then they can move on.
“The capital cost and the delay is killing you, plus you won’t meet your 2030 energy target, which is commendable, without fixing this.
“You have a tactical leadership problem to achieve this and I think you can do it, but you have to figure out a way to get control.”
Sir Keir agreed that the speed at which resolutions are being signed “is a really big challenge”.
He said: “It has to be a priority across government, not just within the Treasury. It’s going to be across government.
“So we’re setting up some of the structures to do this.
“But at the end of the day, it’s a mindset. Is it a mindset that promotes growth? Or does this not promote growth, as the most important question we ask ourselves.”
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Ahead of the question-and-answer meeting between Sir Keir and Mr Schmidt, the Prime Minister pledged to “rip up” red tape and said it was “time to upgrade the regulatory regime”.
He said the government will “ensure that all regulators” in the country take growth “as seriously as businesses”.
The government is expected to unveil deals in artificial intelligence, life sciences and infrastructure at Monday’s summit attended by around 300 industry leaders worth an estimated £40 billion in assets.
Keir Starmer with Mr Schmidt and Dame Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK. Image: Reuters
Mr. Schmidt also urged Sir Keir to invest in data centers to help achieve clean power by 2030, explaining how they go hand in hand, despite data centers using huge amounts of energy.
The former Google chief urged Sir Keir to approve “the necessary steps” to have data centers in the UK.
He said the electricity the data centers use “allows us to build more materials,” which ultimately provide a solution to green energy efficiency problems, and with improved efficiency, there would be more capital for additional green power investment.
Moments after the pair appeared on stage together, the technology secretary announced that global technology firms have invested a further £6.3bn. in data centers in the UK, bringing total investment in data centers to £25bn. since July.
US firms CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ and CoreWeave will all base their data infrastructure in the UK.