Climate Change Act 2019 requires the UK to reduce net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero from 1990 levels by 2050.
According to the Climate Change Committee, around two-thirds of UK greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to business 'Scope 1’ (i.e. direct) activities. The remaining one-third of UK greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to private vehicles and residential buildings.
This is why, here at GoGreen, we believe that for net zero to be achieved by 2050, every stakeholder - government, business, and domestic customers - must play their part.
In doing so, these stakeholders will need to fund their fair share of the estimated £1.4 trillion of upfront investment required in the three decades to 2050.
But we have observed two challenges faced by businesses and domestic customers.
First, businesses are kicking the can down the road due to affordability and/or inertia. According to ONS surveys, the most common reported actions taken by UK business to reduce emissions tend to be those with lowest cost and least disruption. In addition, 46% of businesses reported having taken no action to reduce emissions as of April 2021.
Second, affordability is also a concern for domestic customers. This reflects the high up-front capital costs needed to decarbonise the UK’s domestic building stock, which is reputed to be the oldest in Europe, and the persistent uncertainty around the extent to which the government should subsidise the decarbonisation of domestic buildings.
These challenges must be overcome because the transition to net zero represents a huge economic opportunity for the UK, and is estimated to be worth up to £1 trillion (in aggregate) of recurring economic benefits by 2050.
We believe this economic opportunity will materialise in three tangible ways:
1. Increased incomes e.g. by leveraging smart meters, independent power generation, and battery storage to participate in flexibility market trading arrangements.
2. Reduced energy consumption e.g. by leveraging smart meters, retrofits, and smart building controls to reduce energy loss and ghost usage.
3. Reduced energy tariffs e.g. by leveraging smart meters to switch to more cheaper time-of-use tariffs.
Therefore businesses that take action (not just on their own account but also to support the segment of their customer base who may also struggle with affordability) stand to gain a fair share of the recurring economic benefits of net zero.
Our mission is to facilitate a more inclusive transition to net zero.
This is why we build software to make the economic opportunity of net zero more tangible and actionable than ever before.
If we succeed, then no one should be left behind in the UK transition to net zero by 2050.
That's a vision worth striving for.
Onward!