Utility Week

12 | 30TH AUGUST- 5TH SEPTEMBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Utility of the Future: climate change Towards net zero carbon W ith environmental concern growing in the public consciousness, the past six months have seen a flurry of high-profile protests and legislative action from the government. In the final throes of her premiership, Theresa May sought to establish a legacy outside of Brexit by committing the UK to Too little, too late Hitting net zero by 2050 will too late to save the planet, say activists. Greg Jones talks to three of those campaigning for utilities to take drastic action to cut emissions. The Utility of the Future Utility Week is running a year-long campaign to tackle the difficult question of the future of the sector. The campaign pillars include: July/August: Climate change September/October: Customers November/December: Business models and workforce Jan/February: Regulation March/April: Technology Check utilityweek.co.uk for more campaign content. be the first major economy to set a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target, aiming for 2050, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). The pledge has been advertised as an opportunity for the UK to lead the way on this most pressing of issues, hopefully inspiring governments, citizens and companies around the world to be more ambitious about cutting emissions. However, some claim that net zero itself is too late. Notable climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, whose large-scale protests piled pressure on the government to declare a climate emergency, lamented a lack of ambition in the target. The group demanded the date be brought forward to 2025, with co-founder Gail Brad- brook saying we have le‹ it so late that "we have to step up in a semi-miraculous way to deal with this situation". Describing the CCC's recommendation as "an important – albeit small – step in the right direction", Extinction Rebellion say it is "vital" for the 2050 target to be brought for- ward. The CCC has said that globally reach- ing net zero by 2050 would provide a 50/50 chance of keeping temperature increases below 1.5C – a level considered safer than the 2C previously agreed in Paris. David Joffe, one of the authors on the CCC report, said: "There's lots of progress that we need to make and need to make quickly. "It's not impossible to achieve an earlier date but extremely stretching to get to 2050. We need to be realistic about challenges we set ourselves. The call from Extinction Rebel- lion for 2025 indicates to me they don't really understand the complexity of the challenge. "We could have a conversation about 2045, but to anyone who says it can be done earlier, it is really important that they acknowledge the scale of the challenge." Around the UK, cities have been jumping ahead on the issue. In May this year, Glasgow and Edinburgh announced plans to reach neutral emissions levels, each hoping to find success ahead of the 2045 target the Scottish government has already adopted. Edinburgh is seeking to reach the mark by 2030, while Glasgow's ambition is advertised as a more flexible "well before" 2045. In England, Manchester announced at the end of 2018 a 2038 net zero goal, while Leeds set its sights on the same year in July. Liverpool City has pledged to become zero carbon by 2040. It remains to be seen if these targets creep forward, or if they will be met at all. In the following three pages we speak to three campaigners calling for more urgency in the race to tackle climate change. GLOBAL AVERAGE RENEWAVBLE COSTS CONTINUE TO FALL Source: CCC CARBON AND ENERGY INTENSITY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Source: CCC 0.40 0.35 0.30 0.25 0.20 0.15 0.10 0.05 0.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 Fossil fuel range Onshore wind Onshore wind (auction) Solar PV Solar (auction) Offshore wind Offshore wind (auction) Concentrated solar Concentrated solar (auction) 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Levelised cost of electricity ($/kWh) 1990 = 1 NB: Solid lines indicate global weighted average levelised costs of energy. Dots indicate global weighted average for auction prices for projects set to start in a particular year. NB: CO2 emission here only include those arising from fossil fuel use in the energy system but not other sources of emission such as land-use change. GDP (2010 USD) CO2 emissions (FFI) CO2 intensity of energy Energy intensity of GDP

• Cover