It is somehow still the case in 2020 that I an buy a few bits of paper at low cost and retrospectively declare a chunk of historic renewable electricity as *mine*. 100% renewable electricity tariffs generally rely on this principle, and it's nonsense.

THREAD (1/14)

Lets apply the principle to a simpler imaginary example: aviation. Let's assume that 1% of the jet fuel market is supplied by zero-carbon biofuel. Everyone who flies is therefore "1% renewable". (2/14)

However, as well as making biofuels, farms are also required under EU law to produce a certificate for every gallon of go-juice. This system was designed so airlines can certify their fuel composition. (3/14)

BUT - these certificates can be bought on an open market independently of biofuel purchases and are generally very cheap. (4/14)

HempAir offers flyers the opportunity to pay a small surcharge on their fare in order to fly "100% renewable". You can now fly guilt free, with no need to plant a tree, for only one extra cent on the dollar. Awesome! (5/14)

But, HempAir doesn't actually use the surcharge to buy more biofuel for that plane. In fact it can't - the airport just brings in the fuel all mixed together, 1% renewable. (6/14)

Instead, it just buys enough certificates from the fuel farm to cover your personal share of the the fuel consumed for that flight and states that this entitles you to claim that the flight was 100% renewable, for you. (7/14)

Of course, the fuel mix is unchanged and any notional assigning of biofuel to you simply shifts it from everyone else. On a 100 person plane, the other 99 passengers just went from 1% renewable to 0% so you can go from 1% to 100%. Good job. (8/14)

For many people, this does not pass the smell test. In fact, the aroma of freshly applied greenwash stings the nostrils. But this is essentially what happens with most 100% renewable electricity tariffs. (9/14)

The fact that a piece of paper has changed hands does not affect the reality of the carbon emissions of your flight. You might as well stand up in the aisle at the start of the flight and shout "bagsy biofuel!" (not sure how well 'bagsy' translates for non-Brits) (10/14)

You could argue that the additional revenue to the fuel-grower from certificate sales stimulates more investment in algae farms to make more biofuel. Maybe, but the amount is pretty tiny in comparison to wholesale costs and government subsidies (11/14)

HempAir could instead invest directly in new algae farms to make more biofuel to account for its own fuel usage, even if it can't guarantee the fuel mix in its own planes. This is much more legitimate and some electricity suppliers do this too. (12/14)

Why does this matter? Because such pleasant fictions reduce general levels of understanding of energy systems which affects the policies they are likely to support. Many people really believe that they can have 100% renewable electricity - so why can't a whole country? (13/14)

Such emphasis on personal consumption micro-choices, especially when very little extra cost is required to allegedly cancel a personal carbon footprint, obscures the real and devilish challenge of energy system transformation.

END (14/14)

Here is a good article on the real situation with electricity in the UK, and an argument for reforming the REGO system (which we can presumably do, post-Brexit): https://www.current-news.co.uk/blogs/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-regos-why-a-new-origin-certificate-is-needed