Is the UK really ready to decarbonise?

With the Extinction Rebellion protests and the arrival of Greta Thunberg, climate change dominates the political agenda in a way it hasn’t done in years. The news that the UK went a whole week without using coal went viral around the world after Leonardo Di Caprio posted National Grid statistics on his Instagram. Meanwhile, the warnings of what the future could look like if we do nothing grew worse and worse.

These concerns around climate change, and alarming figures for the number of deaths caused by air pollution, have led to mounting pressure on the government to be even more ambitious in its efforts to decarbonise the energy system. Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions are already 43 per cent below 1990 levels, and the country seems to be on track to meet the 80 per cent target for 2050, but much of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked. With the Committee