The UK aims to reach net zero in 2050. This is a well-known deadline, but what’s less clear to many people is exactly what achieving zero emissions would mean, including net zero electricity.
Done properly, decarbonisation will have a serious impact on three basic needs that are fundamental to our daily lives: transport, electricity and heating. Below, we’ll take a detailed look at net zero electricity usage and production, which are also integral to the other two aspects.
The basis of everything
Until fairly recently, these three needs – getting around, powering appliances, and heating the home – were supplied in the UK by three independent systems. Transport was driven by diesel and petrol, electricity came from the grid, and heating came from natural gas (or oil, in some rural locations).
This has already started to change. From cars and vans to radiators and heat pumps, electricity has become the “green” option when it comes to lowering emissions. It’s gone from one, self-contained system to the basis of the whole. But if we’re aiming for Net Zero, then it isn’t enough just to substitute electricity for fossil fuels. We also have to think about how it’s used, and how it’s generated.
While the balance is shifting towards renewables, simply increasing the demand for electricity still means increasing the carbon emissions that result from its production.
The question of supply
Yes, opting for an electric car or heat pump is an effective way to slash your household emissions. But where does that electricity come from?
In the UK, electricity generation relied heavily on coal until the 1990s. Now, it’s mostly a mix of gas, wind, nuclear and biomass fuel. While the balance is shifting towards renewables, simply increasing the demand for electricity still means increasing the carbon emissions that result from its production.
There’s considerable, high-profile scientific research around renewable energy sources, which present their own challenges in terms of both reliability and scale. But the other side of the coin is consumer behaviour. Until electricity production is 100% clean, systematic change will be needed to lower emissions consistently and across the board.
Decarbonisation is complex
When talking about renewable energy projects, there is an attempt to simplify the concept by talking about how many houses it will supply – but this begs the questions ‘for how many hours a year?’ and ‘will it be supplying them when they need it?’
There is no question that the systems we rely on to deliver energy to us are fundamentally designed to deliver two related but distinct services – supplying the energy and doing that at the time when we need it.
Delivering net zero to avoid the worst impacts of climate change is going to require fundamental shifts in the way that society operates, and we can’t create that change by excluding people because we’re talking about concepts that can only be understood by specialists.
We need to find a way of communicating the challenges of net zero like the difference between MW (megawatts) and MWh (megawatt hours) in all their nuanced complexity, but we have to remember that what feels like a simple concept to us will be impenetrable jargon to others – the people we most need to work with.
The future is transdisciplinary
A lot of popular, accessible writing about decarbonisation focuses on telling people what they can and should do to decrease their carbon footprint. It’s important to encourage changes in habit, such as relying less on your car, turning down the heating, and buying fresh, local produce that hasn’t had to be transported over a long distance.
But what needs to be acknowledged is that people’s choices are constrained by their circumstances. A high-income household will find it easier to invest in an expensive electric vehicle rather than keeping their old petrol car on the road. Someone living in a city centre and commuting to a 9 to 5 job will be better able to rely on public transport than a care worker in a rural area. And it’s easier to factor in the long lead time for installing a heat pump if your boiler hasn’t just broken down, leaving you without heating or hot water.
This means that reaching Net Zero isn’t just about finding the right scientific solutions. Effective decarbonisation means scientists, engineers, economists and social scientists working together to create a realistic, sustainable strategy that the whole of society can support.
