Are Low-Income Households Getting Left Behind in the United Kingdom's Energy Transition?

Abstract

The transition to sustainable energy sources is crucial to achieving the 2015 Paris Agreement of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the impacts on the environment and climate, while providing access to affordable, secure, modern, and sustainable energy by 2030—Sustainable Development Goal 7 of the Agreement. Countries around the world are increasingly making diverse and ambitious commitments and taking actions to achieve these goals. The United Kingdom (UK) had a previous goal of reducing GHG emissions by 80 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2050, but in 2019 the country became the first major economy to vow to reach net-zero by 2050. In 2021, the government under the now extinct Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), published the Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener, containing policies and proposals to achieve this goal in all sectors of the UK economy.