Wednesday 29 September 2021

The Big Zero Report – ENGIE

Businesses play a key role in the journey towards net zero and curbing global emissions by 2050.

That is why we recently published our Big Zero Report – a compilation of thought leadership from our partners and an exploration into what top experts believe must be done to accelerate progress towards a more sustainable world.

The report is available to download for free here and you can read what Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng made of it here.

We spoke with experts from ENGIE to get an insight into what progress they believe has been made and what the next important steps are.

Phil Broom, Regulation Director, spoke on net zero policy: "You're now seeing an alignment between the independent body responsible for the climate budget and government policy and I think that is a real positive.

"The one note of caution around government policy would be around affordability. I think, relatively speaking, across other nations the energy bill is very heavily stacked towards quality costs now and we have to be careful on affordability, going forwards. Especially with the challenges that lie ahead on further greening and heat and transport."

Andrew Spencer, Head of Corporate Solutions and Projects, spoke of the technologies that are exciting at the moment: "Hydrogen has a big part to play - we can use that energy and move it around the UK fairly freely and it has better storage potential at the moment than lithium-ion. So that for me is the future."

Erika Rankin, Head of Public Solutions, stressed the importance of behaviour change: "[It's] completely and utterly fundamental to achieving our net zero carbon targets, not just to 2050 but also the 2030s.

"There's significant changes required even in the next decade. Particularly around things like moving to EVs, converting to heat pumps, getting people to eat healthier diets, purchasing more sustainably, reducing waste."

Watch the video for the full interviews and insight.