How the climate fight is coming into your home
Something has changed dramatically in your home in a way you won’t have even noticed.
The electricity in your plug socket no longer comes from coal, the workhorse of the industrial revolution that powered our economy for decades but which is also the most polluting fossil fuel.
Now it is generated by cleaner gas, renewable and nuclear power.
That shift has helped the UK cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% since 1990 – a world-leading feat – and you won’t have batted an eyelid.
That’s about to change.
The country’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), say in new advice today that emissions of greenhouse gases need to fall 87% by 2040.
Emissions need to fall by 87% by 2040, during the period covered by the ‘seventh carbon budget’, published today by the CCC
One third of those emissions cuts will come from decisions made by households.
While the first stage of the country’s national climate action has “gone largely unnoticed”, the next phase will be “a lot more difficult”, said Adam Berman from Energy UK, which represents energy suppliers.
“It’s going to be technically more difficult, it is going to be much more visceral and tangible to people in their everyday lives. It affects how they get to work, what they use to heat their homes and even diet.”
Experts say if we get it right, it will make our lives better with cleaner air and better public transport.
It would also shave hundreds of pounds off annual household bills.
But it depends on what the government does next to help people.
The way we travel
The two “most impactful” things households can do are replacing their car with an electric one and a gas boiler with a heat pump (only when they pack up, and not before), the advice said.
By 2040, the share of electric cars on the road needs to jump from 2.8% in 2023 to 80% in order to meet net zero, according to the recommendations, which the government is not obliged to accept.
They are already cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars, while the falling cost of batteries means EVs should finally cost the same upfront in the next three years.
The committee’s chief executive Emma Pinchbeck said: “Frankly, by the time a lot of people are going to be choosing a new car, the electric vehicle is just going to be the cheapest [option].”
The share of heat pumps must jump to 52%, while electric cars need to reach 80% by 2040, the CCC said
How we heat our homes
But while the switch to electric vehicles is powering ahead, the move to greener home heating has barely left the starting blocks.
Homes are currently the second highest-emitting sector in the UK economy, and much of that comes from the way we heat them.
The CCC today put to bed calls to keep gas boilers but run them on hydrogen, recommending there be “no role for hydrogen heating in residential buildings”.
Hydrogen is hard to produce in a green way, and so would be reserved for other sectors that have no other viable alternatives.
The government is yet to confirm this decision, which would dismay the gas networks and boiler manufacturers.
Instead, the advisers said people should eventually replace boilers with heat pumps, which run on electricity and work a bit like a fridge in reverse: grabbing and compressing warmth from the outside air and using it to heat your home.
Amid a political row over the costs of net zero, the analysis concluded these two switches could save households around £700 a year on heating bills and a further £700 on motoring costs.
Cutting down on meat and on excessive flying will also play an important, but smaller role they said.
The upfront investment will cost the equivalent of 0.2% of GDP, most of which would come from the private sector.
Overcoming the costs
But at the moment the benefits of these green switches are not spread fairly, and some people can’t access them at all.
The upfront costs of a heat pump – and home upgrades needed alongside – are “sizeable” and price out poorer households, even with current government subsidies, campaigners and the CCC said.
Zachary Leather, an economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, said: “While politicians fret and argue about the cost of net zero, today’s report shows that there are long-term benefits for consumers and the environment.”
But the government needs to “get serious” about helping lower-income households to adopt heat pumps and EVs so they can save money too, he said.
Meanwhile, it is still cheaper for someone with a driveway to charge their EV than someone who charges theirs on the street – and electricity prices overall should be made cheaper to help people reap the benefits.
Mr Berman from Energy UK said: “All through the energy system there are these small examples that tend to mean working class households find it more expensive to take up low carbon alternatives.”
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Climate protesters confront Bill Gates
The energy transition is ‘not fair yet’
It also comes at a time of wavering support for climate action. While Labour was elected on a mandate to go faster on climate action, the Conservatives have retreated from green issues, and Reform UK wants to dismantle net zero altogether.
Mr Berman said a way to “resolve that question of public consent is to ensure we’re rolling out that infrastructure in a really, really fair and inclusive way. And we’re not there yet”.
The public are also confused about if, when and how to switch to these green technologies, and which government should tackle this with clearer guidance, the CCC said.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This advice is independent of government policy, and we will now consider it and respond in due course.
“It is clear that the best route to making Britain energy secure, bringing down bills and creating jobs is by embracing the clean energy transition. This government’s clean energy superpower mission is about doing so in a way that grows our economy and makes working people better off.
“We owe it to current generations to seize the opportunities for energy security and lower bills, and we owe it to future generations to tackle the existential climate crisis.”
Business
Post Office scandal: Victims say government’s control of redress schemes should be taken away
Post Office scandal victims are calling for redress schemes to be taken away from the government completely, ahead of the public inquiry publishing its first findings.
Phase 1, which is due back on Tuesday, will report on the human impact of what happened as well as compensation schemes.
“Take (them) off the government completely,” says Jo Hamilton OBE, a high-profile campaigner and former sub-postmistress, who was convicted of stealing from her branch in 2008.
“It’s like the fox in charge of the hen house,” she adds, “because they were the only shareholders of Post Office“.
“So they’re in it up to their necks… So why should they be in charge of giving us financial redress?”
Nearly a third of Ms Hamilton’s life has been dominated by the scandal
Jo and others are hoping Sir Wyn Williams, chairman of the public statutory inquiry, will make recommendations for an independent body to take control of redress schemes.
The inquiry has been examining the Post Office scandal which saw more than 700 people wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015.
Sub-postmasters were forced to pay back false accounting shortfalls because of the faulty IT system, Horizon.
At the moment, the Department for Business and Trade administers most of the redress schemes including the Horizon Conviction Redress Scheme and the Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme.
The Post Office is still responsible for the Horizon Shortfall scheme.
Lee Castleton OBE
Lee Castleton OBE, another victim of the scandal, was bankrupted in 2007 when he lost his case in the civil courts representing himself against the Post Office.
The civil judgment against him, however, still stands.
“It’s the oddest thing in the world to be an OBE, fighting for justice, while still having the original case standing against me,” he tells Sky News.
While he has received an interim payment he has not applied to a redress scheme.
“The GLO scheme – that’s there on the table for me to do,” he says, “but I know that they would use my original case, still standing against me, in any form of redress.
“So they would still tell me repeatedly that the court found me to be liable and therefore they only acted on the court’s outcome.”
He agrees with other victims who want the inquiry this week to recommend “taking the bad piece out” of redress schemes.
“The bad piece is the company – Post Office Limited,” he continues, “and the government – they need to be outside.
“When somebody goes to court, even if it’s a case against the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), when they go to court DBT do not decide what the outcome is.
“A judge decides, a third party decides, a right-minded individual a fair individual, that’s what needs to happen.”
Pic: AP
Mr Castleton is also taking legal action against the Post Office and Fujitsu – the first individual victim to sue the organisations for compensation and “vindication” in court.
“I want to hear why it happened, to hear what I believe to be the truth, to hear what they believe to be the truth and let the judge decide.”
Neil Hudgell, a lawyer for victims, said he expects the first inquiry report this week may be “really rather damning” of the redress claim process describing “inconsistencies”, “bureaucracy” and “delays”.
“The over-lawyeringness of it,” he adds, “the minute analysis, micro-analysis of detail, the inability to give people fully the benefit of doubt.
“All those things I think are going to be part and parcel of what Sir Wynn says about compensation.
“And we would hope, not going to say expect because history’s not great, we would hope it’s a springboard to an acceleration, a meaningful acceleration of that process.”
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June: Post Office knew about faulty IT system
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they were “grateful” for the inquiry’s work describing “the immeasurable suffering” victims endured.
Their statement continued: “This government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1bn having now been paid to thousands of claimants.
“We will also continue to work with the Post Office, who have already written to over 24,000 postmasters, to ensure that everyone who may be eligible for redress is given the opportunity to apply for it.”
Octopus Energy Group, Britain’s largest residential gas and electricity supplier, is plotting a £10bn demerger of its technology arm that would reinforce its status as one of the country’s most valuable private companies.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that Octopus Energy is close to hiring investment bankers to help formally separate Kraken Technologies from the rest of the group.
The demerger, which would be expected to take place in the next 12 months, would see Octopus Energy’s existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken business.
A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20% is expected to be sold to external shareholders in order to help validate the technology platform’s valuation, according to insiders.
One banking source said that Kraken could be valued at as much as $14bn (£10.25bn) in a forthcoming demerger.
Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are among the investment banks invited to pitch for the demerger mandate in recent weeks.
A deal will augment Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson’s paper fortune, and underline his success at building a globally significant British-based company over the last decade.
Octopus Energy now has 7.5m retail customers in Britain, following its 2022 rescue of the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, and the subsequent acquisition of Shell’s home energy business.
In January, it announced that it had become the country’s biggest supplier – surpassing Centrica-owned British Gas – with a 24% market share.
It also has a further 2.5m customers outside the UK.
Kraken is an operating system licensed to other energy providers, water companies and telecoms suppliers. Pic: Octopus
Sources said a £10bn valuation of Kraken would now imply that the whole group, including the retail supply business, was worth in the region of £15bn or more.
That would be double its valuation of just over a year ago, when the company announced that it had secured new backing from funds Galvanize Climate Solutions and Lightrock.
Shortly before that, former US vice president Al Gore’s firm, Generation Investment Management, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased their stakes in Octopus Energy in a transaction valuing the company at $9bn (£7.2bn).
Kraken is an operating system which is licensed to other energy providers, water companies and telecoms suppliers.
It connects all parts of the energy system, including customer billing and the flexible management of renewable generation and energy devices such as heat pumps and electric vehicle batteries.
The business also unlocks smart grids which enable people to use more renewable energy when there is an abundant supply of it.
In the UK, its platform is licensed to Octopus Energy’s rivals EON and EDF Energy, as well as the water company Severn Trent and broadband provider Cuckoo.
Overseas, Kraken serves Origin Energy in Australia, Japan’s Tokyo Gas and Plentitude in countries including France and Greece.
Its biggest coup came recently, when it struck a deal with National Grid in the US to serve 6.5m customers in New York and Massachusetts.
Sources said other major licensing agreements in the US were expected to be struck in the coming months.
Kraken, which is chaired by Gavin Patterson, the former BT Group chief executive, is now contracted to more than 70m customer accounts globally – putting it easily on track to hit a target of 100m by 2027.
Earlier this year, Mr Jackson said that target now risked being seen as “embarrassingly unambitious”.
Last July, Kraken recruited Amir Orad, a former boss of NICE Actimize, a US-listed provider of enterprise software to global banks and Fortune 500 companies, as its first chief executive.
A demerger of Kraken will trigger speculation about an eventual public market listing of the business.
Its growth in the US, and the relative public market valuations of technology companies in New York and London, may put the UK at a disadvantage when Kraken eventually considers where to list.
One key advantage of demerging Kraken from the rest of Octopus Energy Group would be to remove the perception of a conflict of interest among potential customers of the technology platform.
A source said the unified corporate ownership of both businesses had acted as a deterrent to some energy suppliers.
Kraken has also diversified beyond the energy sector, and earlier this year joined a consortium which was exploring a takeover bid for stricken Thames Water.
This weekend, Octopus Energy declined to comment.
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