By Juliet

Today, a new Green Energy Supply Certification scheme for electricity is being launched – to give consumers assurance that a certified green tariff has a genuine environmental benefit. The scheme is based on energy regulator Ofgem’s Green Supply Guidelines launched last year. And Good Energy is one of the first suppliers to have a tariff certified under the scheme.

This is great news – we’ve been campaigning for greater transparency for green tariffs for many years. The new certification scheme is designed to encourage greater uptake of green tariffs from consumers by offering greater clarity and clearing up confusion over domestic green electricity supply. Under the guidelines, suppliers will only be able to market their products as green if they are accredited by an independent panel as having met certain environmental criteria. Specifically, a green tariff must consist of:

• 100% renewable electricity, backed by the appropriate certification of REGOs and LECs (certificates denoting origin)
• Additional measures to mitigate a minimum of 50kg of carbon per customer per year, or 1 tonne if done using Carbon Emissions Reduction Certificates
• Accompanying standardised information including a detailed break-down of the supplier’s fuel mix

Our new tariff is ‘Green & Gold’ -- it mirrors our original 100% renewable electricity tariff while incorporating additional carbon abatement in the form of Gold Standard Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs).

Greater clarity for green electricity is something we’ve campaigned on for many years. We‘re delighted that the new guidelines support the model of 100% renewable electricity that we’ve always operated and hope that others will be encouraged to follow suit. Under the leadership of the independent panel, we believe that these guidelines will significantly boost demand for renewables in the UK.

Consumers want to know that they are making a genuine difference to climate change and thanks to the green energy scheme announced today they can now be assured of it. The existence of these guidelines should put an end to greenwash in the electricity market and sounds the death knell to the dubious double-counting practices of ‘carbon cowboys’ once and for all.

Gold Standard Certified Emissions Reductions represent quantifiable emissions reductions generated by projects that meet best practice sustainability standards – for example investing in wind power in India and energy efficiency in the UK.

We’re also working to get our standard 100% renewable tariff certified – which will take a little longer. So if you are an existing customer you don’t need to rush to switch to the new tariff. But please tell your friends about it!

Solitaire Townsend, chair of the certification panel, said: “We are happy to be able to certify this green tariff.  Good Energy led the working group for the scheme, and we are grateful for their commitment to transparency and best practice in the market”