Sustainability Community

Good morning community!

So great to see you talking online and discussing challenges. This morning I was doing my usual school run and it felt very cold. So I started thinking about what energy UK uses and what are the trends, wanted to see some hopeful things there showing we are moving towards more renewables.

Here's what I found out from the UK's "Energy Trend" report from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero. The report assesses energy production and usage comparing  the same month/period of the year before.

• Oil production dropped 10%
• Gas production fell by 13%
• Energy production from renewable assets increased (wind, solar and hydro) by 17%
• Renewable electricity generation grew 7%. As a share of total generation, renewable generation increased to 44.5%, outpacing fossil fuel's share
• Fossil fuel electricity generation decreased, 31%
• Net import dependencey increased slightly from 36.3% to 37.8%

As for coal. In the last quarter of 2023 UK coal demand fell 29% to a record low of 1 million tonnes. It is still 1 million tonnes though.

How do you feel about the UK's energy future? Will we maintain trajectory towards cleaner fuels and electricity or do you expect throughs on the way?

Attachment(s)

Energy_Trends_December_2023 (1).pdf   11.49 MB 1 version

Thanks Aya - huge dependency on imported energy. Energy security was a significant strategy highlighted as part of the UK Government's Powering up Britain raft of proposals announced along with Net Zero and Green Finance Strategy in March last year.  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/powering-up-britain#:~:text=Powering%20Up%20Britain%3A%20Net%20Zero%20Growth%20Plan,-Together%20with%20the&text=sets%20out%20the%20actions%20we,offshore%20wind%2C%20CCUS%20%2C%20and%20nuclear

Times article today notes:  

Tories accused of complacency by delaying energy security summit

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2c1cf768-b1b4-4f73-87bb-a7e09ac76b04?shareToken=1a41c303b1875d67fa0b3e6f813ec230

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James Doyle
Director, Green Finance, Investment Management
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