Has one man just saved England’s World Cup from disaster?
On the eve of the World Cup, the UK government has averted a major brewing crisis that could have ruined the tournament for football fans of both competing home nations.Supplies of carbon dioxide – which the beer industry needs to put the fizz into its booze – have been dwindling ever since the start of the Iran war, when the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted supply lines to Europe.But football fans can now rest assured they will be able to enjoy a pint during this summer’s tournament while wearing an eye-wateringly expensive replica shirt following an eleventh-hour intervention by Peter Kyle. To ensure that lager retains their sparkle at a time when football fans will be drinking bucketloads of the stuff – and even chucking it performatively into the air every time their team scores a goal… – the business and trade secretary took the decision in March to bolster domestic production of CO2 by giving the green-light to temporarily restarting the mothballed Ensus bioethanol plant in Wilton, Teesside, at a cost of £100 million.He has now committed to building a more resilient CO₂ industry in the UK to better “guard against future shocks and shortages”. I bet no one had Peter Kyle as Man of the Tournament, did they? But this is the sort of popular move that could turn an unassuming, quietly competent government minister into something of a folk hero. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please raise your plastic glasses to the Labour MP for Brighton and Hove…? This is not the first time the business secretary has proven himself to possess a natural competence that is in desperately short supply in Westminster, where too many of our elected representatives are more interested in sounding off to get clicks and views than in formulating good policy. (And when you're going to be paying almost 25 per cent more for a pint compared to the last World Cup, it had better not be flat.)Amid contingency planning, trade and business secretary Peter Kyle has urged the public to relax and ‘go on as they are enjoying beer’ (Reuters)The CO2 crisis goes way beyond the desire of sports fans to celebrate or to drown their sorrows with fizzy lager. Carbon dioxide matters, as Kyle’s call for evidence notes, to a lengthy list of industries including medicine, healthcare, nuclear power generation, food and drink processing, humane animal slaughter and water treatment. How did we get to the stage where all this was threatened? Donald Trump’s war with Iran has exposed huge flaws in global supply chains, not only when it comes to energy, but also in a host of other important industrial and agricultural products, of which carbon dioxide is but one.A leaked report in April suggested that pubs, supermarkets and even the healthcare sector was on course to be affected by a CO2 shortage linked to the war in Iran.Covid taught us all about the importance of supply chains, their fragility, and the malign consequences should they be disrupted. This latest geopolitical flare-up only serves to underline the point. Relying on imports for vital commodities is unwise, and that’s putting it mildly. Goal! Pints are thrown during World Cup matches at Croydon’s Boxpark (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)Shutdowns across the fertiliser and bioethanol industries have forced the UK to turn to overseas sources. But the secretary of state’s call for evidence stresses the importance of “market‑led options to diversify carbon dioxide supply”. Rather than rely on imports, the government wants – needs – UK businesses to step up. What it will inevitably hear from them are calls for more business-friendly policies to allow them to do that sustainably. That means pushing forward with planning reform and working to address their costs. Among them: energy, the result of a profoundly dysfunctional market. Business consumers lack even the thin protection offered to domestic users by Ofgem’s price cap. Regulation is an ongoing bugbear. Tax is a part of the picture, too.Kyle may have saved the World Cup for the nation’s boozers. Customers will have their fizz. But there is a big question mark hanging over the future of food and drink production in the UK that shouldn’t be there at all.
