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The net zero target was rightly hailed as a decisive moment in the battle against climate change but as our new Utility of the Future campaign launched today points out, in many ways that was the easy bit.
Just as pressing as the UK’s pledge to cut all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is the need to take the public on the climate journey too. With this critical issue now the debate of a generation, and utilities sitting right at the heart of it, our new, year-long investigation into what a utility of the future might look like focuses on climate change as the first key pillar in the series.
And crucially, our exclusive public poll takes the temperature on what consumers really think about halting climate change, the role utilities should play and what personal changes they would be prepared to make.
Those working in the energy industry know all too well that it cares about meeting its obligations to the public and the planet – and there is much evidence that it is responding.
So it will be disheartening to read that more consumers we surveyed (47 per cent) regard industry as part of the problem than the solution (32 per cent).
And, as the research by Harris Interactive also found, the climate conundrum doesn’t stop there. While 78 per cent were supportive of the UK’s 2050 net zero plans, and most (89 per cent) were happy to make changes to their energy or water use, only 38 per cent of those would make a significant change, with just 28 per cent happy to pay higher energy bills to help achieve net zero.
As one contributor points out, there is a long way to go, and the dial really needs to turn up. Referencing the relatively quiet renewables revolution, he says: “We’ve gone from brown electricity to green without people even realising. But when they’re driving an EV… they are going to know and will need to want to make the change.”
Communicating their message and educating the public will be vital work for utilities in the decarbonisation days ahead, as will collaboration within and without the sector too.
Yet such stringent government targets must be backed up with far more support.
As the latest progress report from the Committee on Climate Change reminded us all this week, the policy is yet to match up to the rhetoric.
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