You can now buy your electricity from sources that help to fight climate change but you have to be careful - many of the so-called ‘green tariffs' offered by energy companies make little or no contribution to reducing CO2 emissions, because they go no further than the suppliers are required to by law.
Electricity producers are bound by law to source some of the electricity they sell from renewable sources.
According to the National Consumer Council, most suppliers do little more than re-package these legal obligations and market them as special ‘green tariffs'. Unfortunately, by signing up to these you are not helping combat climate change.
Even the better tariffs on offer will only reduce CO2 emissions by around 100kg a year - around 6% of an average household's CO2 emissions. We think this is still worth signing up for, because everything helps, but unfortunately this is no quick fix to your household's emissions.
There are two independent ‘green electricity' companies that we recommend because we think they do most to combat climate change
Good Energy
A small independent company that supplies electricity from purely renewable energy. 100% of the power they supply comes from renewable sources, including wind, small-scale hydro, wave and solar power. The National Consumer Council writes about Good Energy: ‘For those customers who want a green electricity supply, pure and simple, this is probably the closest they will get to it'.
The cost is slightly more than for normally sourced electricity, up to £30 a quarter for a family. It's easy to sign up for a green tariff with Good Energy in five minutes by following this link to their website.
For your convenience, Good Energy informs your existing energy supplier that you are switching so you don't need to do this. You continue to use all existing wires and equipment and Good energy arrange for meter readings in the normal way - so switching is very simple.
Ecotricity
Another independent company that is dedicated to installing as much new renewable energy capacity as it can. Although only about 20-30% of their power is sourced from renewable sources, Ecotricity claim to spend more money per customer on new renewable energy than any other company. Because of this, they say that by signing up with them you are likely to be doing more to combat climate than with some other tariffs.
They also guarantee to match the prices charged by your regional electricity supplier, so you can help the environment at no extra cost. You can sign up for a green tariff with Ecotricity in only a few minutes by following this link to their website. As with Good Energy, Ecotricity informs your existing energy supplier that you are switching, you continue to use all existing wires and equipment and Ecotricity arrange for meter readings in the normal way
As outlined above, most other companies' tariffs tend to have little or no impact on reducing CO2, because they are already obliged to generate a certain proportion of renewable energy.
You can get a full, independent overview of all the different ‘green' tariffs offered in the UK by following this link to the National Consumer Council report on this topic.
