Hope and the energy transition

There’s no denying it – there is a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the energy transition. 

With scepticism, nimbyism and pessimism frequently showing up in tabloids and click-bait articles, opposition ministers pledging to backpedal on the UK’s net zero ambition, and an overall ‘functional freeze’ in Britain under the rising cost of living, the drive away from our familiar fossil fuels can feel futile.

But there are reasons to remain hopeful amongst all this noise. Plenty of them, in fact. 

While cliché, the oft quoted motivational phrase ‘growth doesn’t happen in the comfort zone’ certainly rings true here; instead of delaying progress to future generations for the sake of our own comfort, we should embrace the energy transition – addressing the challenges that arise along the way – for the sake of growth. 

To create the space for this growth, we need to reframe the way we think and speak about the energy transition around a shared narrative of hope.

That is the crucial message that Chris Skidmore (former U.K. Energy and Clean Growth Minister) and Nigel Topping (Chair of the Climate Change Committee) present in their recent Climate Action Coalition report ‘The Electric Economy: Creating Consensus, Communicating Change’. 

The report reminds us that, no matter our personal, political views, we must acknowledge our common ground – we will all benefit from a more sustainable future.

Below I try to summarise some of the key points of the report, which acknowledges that although there are systemic changes to be made, particularly in terms of the UK’s cost of electricity, we should take stock of the progress we are already making towards the energy transition and continue to advocate for positive changes that will benefit our society, today and tomorrow.

Clean power is thriving

The report’s first chapter ‘Beyond Clean Power – The Electric Economy’ provides an overview of the progress the UK has already made in clean energy. 

It starts by pointing out that in 2025, ‘renewables were the UK’s largest electricity source for the first time, providing 47% of the total.’ 

While wind and solar power significantly contributed to our electricity supply, 2025 was also the UK’s first year without any coal power (a source the UK historically owes a significant amount of its industrial and economic progress to) since the closing of the country’s last coal-fired power plant in 2024.

Furthermore, the electrification of the transport sector through EVs, and the adoption of heat pumps (which reached a record high in the UK at over 125,000 units sold) is having a huge impact on our economy. 

Not only are consumers getting far more energy for their money with these highly efficient cars and heating systems, but the country’s reliance on fossil fuels is falling as a result - by the equivalent of ‘14 million barrels of oil, or what the UK imports in a two week span’ in 2025.

The less fossil fuels, the more secure our energy

So, the rise of clean power isn’t just good news from an economic standpoint, but also when it comes to energy security (one of the government’s main concerns in making Britain a ‘clean energy superpower’). 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to a global energy crisis as Russian fossil fuel imports were phased out – for the UK, this resulted in an increase of 54% in the energy price cap of April 2022, and the urgency for energy security was brought to the forefront for government. 

Reducing our reliance on gas, the report explains, would make UK households far less vulnerable to price shocks caused by international market crises. 

In fact, as Climate Change Committee CEO Emma Pinchbeck told Parliament: “In 2050 a household with electric technologies—an electric heating system and an electric vehicle—is 15 times less exposed than a household still dependent on fossil fuels, should there be another gas price strike”.

Electricity need not cost the earth

You may be thinking – and validly so - ‘it’s all very well preaching about the positives of heat pumps and EVs, but electricity costs to the end user are just too high’. 

Indeed, Skidmore and Topping address this predicament in the context of the ‘spark gap’, where electricity costs about four times more than gas. 

They describe the UK’s marginal pricing system (where the wholesale costs of gas set the costs of electricity) as a ‘gas levy’ on bill payers, where those using electric heating systems are unfairly penalised in the form of high electricity bills. 

As EnergyUK have observed, reducing our reliance on foreign fossil fuel markets will bring electricity prices down in the long run, but this cannot happen soon enough, and government should be putting policies in place to support households and businesses in the interim.

While a Britain with cleaner power will (albeit in the long term) bring down electricity bills, on the flip side, fossil fuel generation is raising them – in 2025, two gas power plants (in Hertfordshire and Flintshire) were paid a combined amount of over £12 million to supply just three hours of electricity. 

Considering that gas only accounted for just under a third of UK electricity generation in 2025, it is hugely unfair that it set the price of electricity as the marginal fuel, and continues to do so. 

Rebalancing the ‘spark gap’ is therefore integral to bringing down electricity prices, and making renewable technology like heat pumps (which can be up to 3-4 times more efficient than gas boilers) more cost-effective to operate in the here and now – not just in the long term. 

The report highlights that the scales do not even need to be fully ‘balanced’ to achieve this outcome; given the efficiency of electric technology, the spark gap only needs to be brought down to a 3:1 ratio (i.e. where electricity is three times the price of gas). 

To go beyond this ‘breaking even’ scenario, a 2.5:1 gap could see consumers really benefit from having heat pumps – alongside the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, they could be saving £110 per year on their running costs, compared to a gas boiler.

Despite our differences, we share a belief in a better future

While anti-net-zero sentiment and accusations about the high costs of electrification continue to circulate, something else is circulating too: progress. 

It is often the case that the same people opposing the energy transition still support the positive changes it brings. 

The report finds that a majority of Reform and Conservative voters support measures that can ‘deliver greater energy security and independence, economic growth and greater efficiencies’, despite polls revealing they are not in favour of the term ‘net zero’ (this perhaps comes down to the controversy and lack of understanding surrounding the phrase, which you can read more about in my Net Zero series ‘What is net zero?’ and ‘What net zero is not’).

Although many may be sceptical towards net zero, the report’s research reveals that the majority of Britons believe the cost of living is a greater priority than reducing carbon emissions (which is why government must act when it comes to the spark gap). 

However, the UK’s decarbonisation and electrification do not necessitate extortionate costs – the National Energy System Operator (NESO) maintains, in fact, that a scenario that meets net zero by 2050 would be the ‘cheapest’ option for the UK. 

This, Skidmore and Topping argue, is the narrative we should be focusing on, but positive change from government must accompany it, in the forms of:

• A national strategy to reduce bills
• Projects across the country, ideally in each of the 650 parliamentary constituencies (such as a ‘Project 650’ idea where renewable energy projects that make both carbon and cost savings on bills are mapped out).

We must continue to capture progress as the energy transition forges ahead; there are many challenges to overcome, but just as many reasons to welcome the benefits it

Amy McEwen is a Policy and Public Affairs Graduate for Mitsubishi Electric