Government announces new plans to tighten rules around green energy tariffs and prevent greenwashing
The growing issue of green tariffs and greenwashing has spurred the UK government to announce its plans to tighten rules around them.
What is greenwashing?
With the growing focus on green policies, energy suppliers are increasingly offering green tariffs to attract environmentally conscious consumers.
Concerns were raised over the tariffs last year when the supplier Good Energy approached the energy regulator Ofgem to regulate other suppliers’ ‘green’ tariffs. They claimed that many of the green tariffs being advertised were misleading and weren’t green at all.
Several suppliers claim they are green by purchasing cheap Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates or European alternatives.
The issue of Greenwashing has grown in recent months as more attention is focused on how energy suppliers are marketing their green credentials and offerings.
Also read: Ofgem to increase monitoring of Green tariffs and put an end to ‘Greenwashing’
What is the government doing?
The government announced that it intends to tighten the rules around green energy tariffs due to the concerns that some energy suppliers are falsely advertising their green credentials.
To this end it will be looking at ways to make the current REGO mechanism smarter and whether suppliers will have to provide clearer information to their customers as to just how green they are.
This information requirement could include things like what type of renewable energy they use, where they source their renewable energy from and when it was generated.
The government also put out a call for evidence to see whether a new regulatory framework may be needed for price comparison websites, non-domestic brokers, and auto-switching services.
“Millions of UK households are choosing to make the green switch and more and more of our energy comes from renewables. But I want people to know that when they sign up to a green tariff, they are investing in companies that make a conscious choice to invest in renewable energy.
“Part of that is ensuring companies are being as transparent as possible on where their power comes from. That way, every family in Britain can rest assured their choices are helping to contribute to our world-leading target of eliminating our contribution to climate change by 2050,” said the Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
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Further Reading
Energy Supplier Switching falls to a three year low despite rising Energy Price Cap
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