Mitigating climate change: Electricity and beyond

Suzanna Hinson

Tackling climate change involves two strands of action: mitigating the extent and adapting to the impacts.

Mitigation means efforts to reduce or prevent the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change through a process called decarbonisation. The UK has already reduced domestic emissions by 40% relative to 1990 levels and has a statutory target of net zero by 2050.

All sectors of the economy contribute to UK emissions. While emissions have fallen in some sectors there has been little change in others.

This Insight describes the progress made in decarbonising the electricity sector and explores the shifting focus to mitigation in other sectors, where progress has been more limited.

Decarbonising electricity

Decarbonising the electricity sector has been widely acknowledged as a success story. Coal – a high-emission fuel – generated 34% of UK electricity in 1998, but fell to 2% in 2019. The Government has committed to phasing out coal by 2024.

Renewable technologies (such as wind and solar) are the epitome of mitigation efforts for some. Renewables have grown from generating just 3% of UK electricity in 1998 to 37% in 2019.

Nuclear is also low-carbon and, while it has not grown as renewables have, still provides almost 20% of UK electricity.

Combining nuclear with renewables, the total UK low-carbon electricity contribution was 54% in 2019. The graph shows how the UK’s electricity mix has changed since 1998.

A chart showing trends in generation by fuel since 1998. Gas and renewables have replaced coal generation over the last decade. — Image description
Source: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Energy Trends: March 2020

Challenges remain to fully decarbonise UK electricity as gas still contributes a significant share.

There is debate about the feasibility of connecting large proportions of renewables to the electricity network and questions about the future contribution of nuclear, as old plants retire and few are built.

Possible scenarios for fully decarbonising electricity suggest various technology mixes with options including renewables, nuclear, biomass, carbon capture and storage (CCS), batteries, demand-side response, and interconnectors.

Government action

Successive governments have facilitated the electricity transition with policies to discourage high-carbon and support low-carbon generation.

The May Government agreed sector deals with the nuclear (2018) and offshore wind (2019) industries, to encourage future development.

From 2017, policy has been based on the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy for growing the economy whilst reducing emissions.

Decarbonising energy beyond electricity

Electricity is only one part of energy demand (see box below).

Energy used in other sectors is a key source of emissions. The progress made in decarbonising electricity has not been replicated for energy in other sectors.

Energy or electricity?

Energy has various forms and can be transformed from one to another.

Electrical energy is one form of energy, others include heat and chemical.

The difference between electricity and energy is important: different types of energy are used in other sectors, including heating homes and fuelling transport.

Decarbonising home heating for example has been described as “a major challenge,” by the Government’s independent advisors, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). There are various options, including hydrogen, district heating, heat-pumps or biomass along with improving energy efficiency, but these can be costly and uptake has been slow. Decarbonising heating in industry presents further challenges.

A Government Energy White Paper is expected to set out energy decarbonisation plans in 2020.

The shifting focus to other sectors

While there is still progress to be made in electricity, the focus of Government and stakeholders is shifting to mitigating emissions from other sectors.

A chart to show change in percentage of UK emissions by source between 1990 and 2018. — Image description

This is reflected in new Government policy and legislation, scrutiny through parliamentary questions and debates, committee inquiries and the Citizens’ Climate Assembly, alongside growing industry interest in sustainability.

The shifting focus is important as many sectors’ emissions have remained flat since 1990 and some have even risen. Since 2016, transport has become the main source of UK emissions (see graph).

Different sectors, different challenges

There are various reasons why other sectors have not followed electricity’s progress.

Electricity has been described as decarbonisation’s “low-hanging fruit.” The CCC suggested reasons for this include the centralised nature of the sector, limited need for consumer behaviour to change, and the availability and now falling costs of low-carbon technologies.

This is not the case across all sectors where solutions may be costly, difficult or unavailable.

In transport for example, lower emission vehicles have traditionally been expensive to buy and run. In addition, fossil fuel costs for consumers can be politically sensitive. As such, successive governments have frozen fuel duty for 10 years to keep costs down for drivers.

Now, electric vehicles are cheaper to run than conventional cars and are expected to soon be cheaper to buy. Other sectors, like aviation and agriculture, may not have such available solutions, meaning they are called “hard-to-treat.”

Mitigating to net zero

Experience in other countries shows progress can be made in sectors where UK mitigation has been limited.

This includes sustainable farming in the Netherlands, CCS use in various sectors in several countries, and far greater sales of heat-pumps in France and electric vehicles in Norway.

International and UK experience shows multiple policy levers can help mitigation. This includes regulating out high-carbon products, subsidising low-carbon technologies and taxing high-carbon activities.

The UK’s decarbonisation targets are broken down into carbon budgets. While the UK has outperformed these in the past, it is currently off track to meet future budgets after 2022.

The CCC has warned there is a “shortfall” of action. The Committee explains that part of the challenge of mitigating climate change to meet a net zero target is that there is “less scope for under-delivery in areas that prove difficult to change.”