By Juliet Davenport, Good Energy founder and CEO

 When it comes to renewable energy, the UK fails dismally to develop our potential. We’ve got some of the best natural resources in Europe for generating green power, yet we languish at the bottom of the European league table, with only Malta and Luxembourg behind us.

Clearly big change is needed. With the recent publication of the Committee on Climate Change report stating that UK can deliver its ambitious renewables targets, we now need to identify what government policies might be getting in the way. The first thing that needs to change is how the UK treats CO2 emissions reporting. Officials have struggled to balance the need to cut emissions with a desire to simplify red tape for businesses. Allowing competing policy requirements to drive reporting standards has resulted in an illogical and confusing policy.

A case in point is the Carbon Reduction Commitment. This was put in place to encourage large energy users to invest in energy efficiency and so reduce their usage. But instead of measuring energy use in MWh it uses carbon. This wouldn’t be a problem if it took into account how electricity is generated. However renewable energy is specifically excluded and counted as having “grid average” emissions - whether it is as a certified renewable electricity product or generated on site.  Therefore renewables cannot be counted as zero-carbon, even though they are – making a confusing subject even more opaque. 

We know that many well-known businesses want to use clean, green, renewable energy; not only to reduce their emissions but also to help control energy costs, reduce wastage and hedge against price fluctuations. But under the current guidelines they have no incentive to do so. Currently those generating renewables on-site which claim the Renewable Obligation or Feed-in Tariff are taxed as though their energy emits 545gCO2e/kWh, even though it does no such thing.

DEFRA is currently deciding whether to make the existing emissions reporting guidelines mandatory or not. However Deloitte research from 2009 found that just 9% of FTSE 100 companies used them to calculate their CO2 emissions. So policy-makers are not only considering making compulsory rules that are unfair and don’t incentivise companies to reduce their energy emissions, but also they’re looking at using rules that the vast majority of the UK’s leading businesses have chosen not to use. Treating renewable electricity as zero-carbon for reporting purposes is the approach widely used throughout Europe, the USA and Australia – it should be the same here.

Good Energy’s mission is to empower households, communities and businesses to make a better choice when it comes to their energy, both as a supplier and as a microgeneration service provider. So we’re calling on the government to change the existing reporting guidelines, which are not only regressive and outdated, but effectively discriminate against companies wanting to make a better environmental choice. Better guidelines will help companies reduce emissions, encourage new investment in renewable generation and stop the UK looking stupid over illogical carbon calculations that no one else in Europe or the US uses.

That’s why we’re launching a new campaign, Get Rid of Grid Average, to get officials to use supplier or tariff-level fuel mix for reporting purposes – and for on-site renewable generation to be recognised as zero carbon. Over the coming weeks we’ll be speaking to politicians, officials and other stakeholders to persuade them the current guidelines need changing – so that British businesses can use renewable energy to power the UK towards its carbon emissions targets in a way that rewards rather than penalises them. We’re keen to work with as many people and organisations as possible, so if you would like to join us, please get in touch.

This article was first published in Utility Week