National Grid takes lead in cutting harmful emissions

National Grid’s recent announcement that it will work to lower its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050 embraces the same level of emissions reduction currently being considered by lawmakers in Rhode Island and several other states.
On April 18, National Grid raised the bar on its own emissions-reduction target. The U.K.-based utility company had previously committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2050.
To achieve the goal, National Grid said it would adopt new carbon budgets across its British and American electricity and natural gas businesses. The carbon budgets, which National Grid will implement next April, will encourage employees to identify new ways to reduce the company’s emissions, National Grid CEO Steve Holliday said in announcing the initiative.
“Minimizing our impact on the environment while delivering safe, secure and economic supplies of energy to customers is not an option, it is a must,” Holliday said. “We have already reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent, but we need to do more.”
National Grid will take the next year to conduct a review of its operations that will provide a detailed assessment of the carbon footprint for each of its businesses. The company will then set annual and five-year emissions targets for each business that will be integrated into the company’s performance process alongside customer service, reliability, operational and financial targets.
In adopting the program, National Grid said it was situating itself to run a sustainable business in the event that lawmakers attach a price tag to emissions by enacting carbon taxes or mandatory cap-and-trade programs.
In fact, a bill pending in the Rhode Island legislature right now sets the same targets for reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions that National Grid has set for itself.
The Global Warming Solutions Act would reduce emissions in Rhode Island 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Similar bills being considered by lawmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut would set the same emissions reduction target.
National Grid’s adoption of the same emissions-reduction goal is evidence that those targets are becoming more widely accepted, based on scientific consensus about the level of emissions reduction needed to avert the worst consequences of climate change, said Cynthia Giles, director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Rhode Island office
“National Grid’s announcement confirms that this is the right target, and what science tells us we must do,” Giles said. “It’s important to act quickly and to start towards reductions very soon if we expect to achieve the level of reduction we need at a reasonable cost.”
The bill being considered at the Statehouse would set Rhode Island on the path toward immediate emissions reductions by implementing measures that can be achieved in just a couple of years.
It also calls for the creation of a working group to produce an action plan for achieving deeper emissions reductions in the most cost-effective manner in coming decades. Ultimately, many environmentalists say the only way Rhode Island will reduce its emissions by 80 percent is by sharply cutting car emissions.
But early work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Rhode Island would also position the state to enjoy economic advantages over states and businesses that do not act now, Giles said.
Many economists agree that efforts to minimize climate change represent the greatest economic growth opportunity of the century, from entrepreneurial opportunities to create new energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies to the creation of a new class of “green collar” labor jobs.
“While [emissions reductions] is a huge challenge for us, it’s by no means only a difficulty – it also presents great opportunity,” Giles said. •