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Countdown to COP

Our new campaign plots the course to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow this November and looks at the key topics for utilities.

Editor's picks

Utility Week launches Countdown to COP
Our new campaign – to run over the next nine months – will seek to present a pan-utilities road map to net zero. We will explore the sector’s achievements to date and ask what needs to be done to unleash its full potential to drive forward the decarbonisation agenda. James Wallin sets out what the series will cover and how Utility Week members can get involved.
News
Is it fair to shift policy costs from electricity to gas?
The debate over the imbalance of policy costs and taxation between electricity and gas bills is ramping up as the Treasury investigates how net zero should be paid for. As part of our Countdown to COP campaign, David Blackman looks at the arguments for change alongside concerns that targeting gas bills would hit the fuel poor hardest.
Analysis
Is a just transition realistic?
The principle of no customer being left behind in the shift to a smarter, more flexible energy system is hard to argue with. However, some experts believe that in the short-term a just transition is just impossible. As part of our Countdown to COP campaign, James Wallin examines different pathways to fairness – from ensuring the most vulnerable benefit first to the introduction of non-participant tariffs.
Analysis

Latest in Countdown to COP

We need a diverse workforce to get the UK to net zero
Research has shown that 83 per cent of women want to help the country reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050, yet they remain under-represented in the utilities sector. On International Women’s Day, National Grid’s Danielle Stewart gives her view on how the sector can tackle this imbalance.
Opinion
Government pledges to improve GHG
The government is still looking at how to fix the troubled Green Homes Grant (GHG) scheme, a Treasury minister has said. There have been concerns that the scheme could be axed but exchequer secretary Kemi Badenoch said that, while there have been problems, the focus is on overcoming them in the next phase of delivery.
News
PAC: There is still no plan for net zero by 2050
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has given a withering assessment of the government’s preparations for decarbonisation, saying there is “no coordinated plan with clear milestones towards achieving the target” of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
News
‘We can’t afford another wasted decade on energy efficiency’
The Green Homes Grant (GHG) should have been the first step on the green recovery. But, six months on from its launch, the project is in disarray and there are reports it could be scrapped altogether. David Blackman examines what went wrong and what lessons there are for the next wave of decarbonisation policy.
Analysis
‘Failure is a part of great ambition on the path to net zero’
As part of our Countdown to COP campaign, Utility Week speaks to Iain McGuffog, director of strategy & regulation at Bristol Water. He discusses the importance of a community-led approach to reaching net zero, opportunities under Brexit and why some failures will be inevitable if ambition and innovation are truly stretching.
Interviews
Do no harm: Investing for net zero
Can the massive network infrastructure investment needed for net zero be delivered without creating adverse impacts on public engagement or the environment? In a new report, Utility Week and Hitachi ABB Powergrids, explore the challenge.
Analysis
‘Scotland needs a Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero’
One of the next Holyrood government’s first acts of the following May’s Scottish Parliament elections should be to make energy and net zero a Cabinet level portfolio, a trade body has urged.
News
REA calls for net zero power sector by 2032
The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) has unveiled a “green recovery pathway” for achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, whilst creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Meanwhile, politicians and business leaders from the North West, along with SPEN, Cadent and Electricity North West, have launched an “energy masterplan”.
News
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