29 years and counting to Net-Zero....

Whilst the Beautiful Game has captured our hearts and minds (and the newspaper front pages) over the course of the past month, it has swept aside increasingly ugly evidence throughout June and July of the effects of climate change on weather patterns across the globe.

Record heat across the west coast of the United States and across the border into British Columbia has seen fruit cooked on trees, villages lost in sudden infernos and significant health impacts within vulnerable communities; we've seen temperatures above 40 degrees in parts of Finland and Siberia within the Arctic Circle; floods followed by Biblical drought and pestilence (mice, mice and more mice!) destroying crops and livelihoods in New South Wales; widespread flooding in New York City forcing the emergency closure of much of the Metro. Closer to home, the Summer has continued to witness traditional UK and European weather patterns increasingly in flux as the jet-stream weakens and meanders from one new directional extreme to another - playing havoc with agriculture across the continent.

Later this year, the UN's COP26 in Glasgow provides a platform to review, challenge and revise national emission targets set out by nation states after the 2015 Paris Agreement, and further drive accountability and action to reduce global emissions to net zero by 2050. Real time evidence undoubtedly demonstrates countries must get there - but how do we deliver that in practice in the UK? Whilst government can set out policy and legal requirements, the private sector also has a critical role in setting the practical course to now be taken over the course of the next three decades.

Published today, National Grid ESO's Future Energy Scenarios sets out four different, but credible, pathways to get the UK to Net Zero. Whether the road taken is one of 'Steady Progression', sees the country 'Leading the Way ' or lies somewhere between the two - the document explains what each of four possible scenarios might means in practice for the residential, transport and industrial sectors and the supporting energy supply networks.

This is a critical and inspiring document, to be used to inform transmission and distribution network investment decisions, market planning, and the detail of policy and regulation across industry sectors to help the UK reach the 2050 Net Zero objective. Importantly, the document describes in detail what net zero might look and feel like for the UK in 2050, noting this will means a "fundamental shift in how many things are done" and "have implications for all aspects of the way we live".

As with previous iterations of National Grid's document (it is now in its 10th year), this is study which has significant range and unparalleled depth of insight - addressing in detail key issues across the energy sector, from CCUS to hydrogen, to electricity storage, to the roll our of electric cars and the energy implications of new industries and ways-of-working - concentrating on the practical implications of their delivery as part of the UK energy mix.

So if you want to know what needs to happen if the UK is to credibly get to Net Zero in only 29 years time - you should read the four key messages in the document ahead of a deep dive into the unrivalled analysis.

National Grid ESO note decarbonising the UK economy is possible. They also put beyond doubt that it will be complex. That complexity will require new ways of working across industry and government, and broad agreement across the public and private sector on the way forward. There is no time to lose in understanding what that means in practice for industry, for public policy and the planning system, and for investment decisions.