Glasgow COP26 2021 – Fly in the ointment

Next November, the UK will be hosting the COP26, UN Climate Change Conference. This will be an opportunity for UK PLC to showcase its underlying governance roadmap, guiding the nation to achieve Net-Zero.

There are however some gaps in the existing guidelines within the UK Energy Sector, set forth by Ofgem. Fortunately, important gaps can be addressed with some quick wins before November. 

A key area of focus is Greenwashing, where energy companies claim green credentials for themselves or for some of their tariffs - but all is not what it seems. Customers who believe they’re consuming 100% renewable energy, actually aren’t. The article by Good Energy here describes the problem clearly. This can be problematic if organisations like Microsoft, trying to achieve Net-Zero targets, realise their GHG emission reports are not accurate.

The Ofgem decarbonisation action plan 2019 (p26) states:

“We (Ofgem) are aware of growing concerns about ‘greenwashing’ ….We expect suppliers to be transparent about what constitutes a ‘green tariff’ and we will undertake work to ensure that consumers are not misled.” 

However, in reality, after issuing Renewable Energy Certificates (REGO), Ofgem performs a final reconciliation without taking into account what happens in between i.e. private REGO trading which allows non-renewable electricity to be sold as green energy. Of course, these issues are also of concern to BEIS and Citizens Advice with respect to keeping UK consumers informed. 

Power Transition’s advanced energy platform can track each kWh of electricity from its generation to consumption across the grid. Our platform is inherently transparent and will facilitate access to provenance of all energy generated and consumed to interested parties. 

We believe that industry, academics, and regulators need to come together to address these issues and ensure that we have a Net Zero energy system fit for the future and are therefore in the process of setting up a 'Renewable Energy Provenance Taskforce' which will include BEIS, Ofgem, CitA, ESC, Good Energy, Ecotricity, and the Grantham Institute (Imperial College London) and Power Transition. We would be delighted to hear from all like-minded organisations