277. How to make green energy a vote winner
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What are the main issues with the UK's energy pricing system?
Energy is really misunderstood.
Costing households and it's costing businesses and it's making the economy uncompetitive.
Completely agree that the electricity price is a problem. I think the next sentence, though, often in the political debate is, and that's because of net zero or because of the renewables. Which is rubbish. Which is rubbish. Investors, as you know, Robert, aren't fans of change and change to markets and 25-year infrastructure projects. Investor certainty to get the stuff built or consumer benefit pre-2030.
Clean energy is a very attractive...
destination why is it so apparently politically unpopular and what does any government do about it we're delighted to say that this year the rest is money is being powered by octopus energy so greg is back with us greg i've got another question for you so in terms of energy companies are we just back to the big six you know what we've only got like six or so major supermarket chains no one worries about that because they invest ferociously in competition
You've got differentiation. You know, we thought the market was stable, then Aldi and Lidl turned up. Competition is not about reinventing the souk with dozens of identikit companies. It's about companies having different approaches to looking after customers and competing ferociously on that. Energy could well be going that direction.
Cheers, Greg, and thank you for powering this episode of The Rest Is Money.
Hello and welcome to The Rest Is Money with me, Robert Best, and Steph's away doing exciting stuff, but I'm delighted to be joined by Emma Pinchbeck, who is the Chief Executive of the Government's Climate Change Committee. That's the body that advises it on whether it's meeting its climate targets, whether the government is protecting us enough from heatwaves and floods and even droughts in some circumstances. that are the result of climate change. Before that, she actually represented the energy industry. She was on the other side of the fence running a body, a trade body called Energy UK. And what I really want to talk to her about are really two big questions. One is, how do you get the cost of energy down now without knocking us off course when it comes to meeting climate targets?
If indeed, you know, some of you may not think climate targets are important. And again, let's let's let's one of the things I'm going to talk about with her is whether in a Trump world. We should be so fixated on hitting those climate targets. But then there's another big thing, which is actually the big prize if we make this climate transition to a UK that no longer has to import oil and gas, is we're going to be self-sufficient. And actually the marginal cost of renewables is pretty low. So why this route that we're on to self-sufficiency is...
How does the transition to green energy impact households?
in low-cost energy, seemingly so politically unpopular. A lot to chew over with Emma Pinchbeck, and here's our conversation. Emma, very good to see you. I suppose what I wanted to start by asking you is a very big question, which is, you know, at a time when we've now seen these two major conflicts... Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine, Trump's war against Iran, which have led to these energy shocks. There are quite a lot of politicians, and not just at the fringes, who say this is not the moment when we should be spending money on climate transition. I mean, I know the arguments why that may not be wholly credible, but take us through your thinking.
Okay, that is a big question. Both 2022, which I worked on really closely with the energy sector because I was leading the energy trade body at the time and responsible for the response to that crisis. And then now have been caused by a spike in the price of fossil fuels. And underneath that, a global market that the UK has little influence on, but is in the receipt of the... unpredictability of that market and of the prices that come out of it. And so I think at a common sense level Most people would understand the idea that reducing your exposure to that volatility means getting off the fuel that's causing it or separating yourself somehow from that global market.
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