The Energy Networks Association (ENA) has launched a new campaign for Securing A Green Future.
The campaign details the investment grid operators will have to make for the UK to meet its 2050 net zero target. In the coming months it will set out how private investment can help decarbonise the country and how proposals for state ownership may risk net zero.
Securing A Green Future argues that the investment must be used to provide clean, affordable and reliable energy for all, create green collar jobs around the country, manage risk effectively, improve infrastructure and focus on innovation. This is needed to ensure that society as a whole benefits from the energy transition.
David Smith, chief executive of ENA, said: “The Securing A Greener Future campaign aims to demonstrate not only how the industry is already delivering new infrastructure and technologies today to reach the Net Zero target as quickly as possible, but also how our world leading system is the best possible way to reach that target tomorrow.
“Britain is a superpower of renewable energy – we should build on that to reach net zero as quickly as possible.”
All of Britain’s energy network companies have signed up to the campaign, with the hope of facilitating decarbonisation. It is predicted that the UK will have to spend 1-2% of its total wealth annually in order to meet in 2050 net zero goal.
ENA has increasingly been focused on the impact innovation can have on decarbonisation. In September it announced £70 million in new funding for innovative energy tech firms and in October it published a letter, saying it would adapt its Open Networks project to build on “relentless focus on innovation, delivery and net zero” .