Carbon and climate change

Overview

Climate change is one of the single biggest global challenges. We recognise the impact that energy can have on the climate and we remain committed to reducing carbon emissions. It is also important to balance the challenges of tackling climate change with other core priorities, in particular to ensure secure, affordable supplies of gas and power for all our customers. As we continue to evolve the strategy for our business, we must balance all three of these priorities: keeping the lights on in an affordable way while reducing energy's impact on the climate. This is what we call 'the energy trilemma'.

We are helping our customers use energy in a smarter way to reduce their energy costs and carbon emissions, while sourcing the gas supplies needed to heat their homes affordably and reducing the carbon intensity of power generation.

Our approach to managing our impact on climate change is:

• Enabling customers to cut carbon emissions through energy efficiency measures and renewable microgeneration technologies such as solar panels and managing their energy use more effectively with smart technologies
• Promoting lower carbon power generation including wind and nuclear through our own generation or with our chosen partners
• Leading by example by cutting our carbon footprint from buildings, company vehicles and travel

We remain committed to addressing the challenge of climate change and to contributing to government greenhouse gas emission reduction targets that have been set at European and UK level. But we cannot do this alone. Consumers must be willing to change how they think about energy - the way they obtain it and the way they use it. Consumer awareness and action is essential to reduce demand and thereby cut carbon emissions from energy. Governments also have a critical role to play by providing the right regulatory frameworks to make investment in lower carbon power generation economically viable.

Extensive engagement with these and other stakeholders is necessary to develop the momentum for change. See our Stakeholder engagement summary PDF (0.60Mb) for more information on how we work with others in this area.

2012 Performance Review

Read a strategic update on our carbon and climate change activities in the 2012 CR Performance Review.

• Download 2012 Performance Review PDF (3.80Mb)

Data

Find 2012 data for our carbon and climate change performance indicators in our interactive data centre.

• View our carbon performance indicators