THE GND IS TOO CAUTIOUS:

In the five years since the Paris Climate Agreement, we've transformed our business model. Today, all the power we generate - enough to supply the energy needs of nearly 2 million homes - comes from our forty onshore and offshore windfarms. Every new customer we sign up is supplied with 100 per cent green electricity as a matter of course. 

We may be the first of the UK's integrated energy companies to make this green shift, but I sincerely hope that we won't be the last. 

Net zero is now the prism through which we take our business decisions, and that's a profound change. It's a key reason for us becoming a Principal Partner of COP26, the global climate change conference which will be hosted by our home city of Glasgow in November 2021.

Over the next five years we're building on our green commitments, with a £10 billion investment plan to double our renewable generation capacity and to deliver the networks that will facilitate electric vehicles and decarbonised heating. Our plans will support something in the order of 10,000 jobs, helping to develop skilled apprentices, a sustainable supply chain, and spreading the economic benefits far and wide.

With the right net zero route map - along the lines that the Climate Change Committee has just set out - and with the right supporting frameworks, we can make the decarbonisation of our power, transport and heating sectors a reality. 

As an industry, we've already shown how we can invest behind clear targets, driving down the price of wind power to the point where it's now the cheapest form of electricity in the UK, bar none. That was unimaginable twenty years ago - but thanks to the mechanisms put in place by successive governments, the UK is now recognised as a world leader in delivering green electricity. 

We should be taking the lessons from this experience and applying them to the nascent technologies we know will be important for delivering net zero - such as developing low carbon hydrogen at scale to help clean up transport and heavy industry, and making heat pumps a mainstream and cost-efficient alternative to conventional gas boilers for heating our homes.

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