13 June, 2025

When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, electricity is both green and cheap.But this isn’t always the case. As a result, the emissions intensity of electricity can vary quite considerably through time and location (you can see the live tracking for the UK here).  

But the typical approach for calculating emissions takes a business’s annual consumption and applies it to an annual emissions intensity figure. Estimates show that this can over- or under-estimate emissions by up to 35%, compared to real-time measurement. We also know we need to match electricity production with consumption in order to move away from fossil fuels. 

This is exactly what The Climate Group has set out to address with its 24/7 Carbon-Free Coalition. It was launched at New York Climate Week last year and recently published its technical guidance, which aims to support businesses to commit to carbon-free electricity use and deliver upon those claims. 

A big part of the challenge is being able to measure emissions at this level of detail, and this is an import focus of the coalition. It relies on utility companies providing more detailed information, but some do already support this, such as Octopus’ Electric Match service for businesses, which matches and tracks consumption directly to generation. 

We think this development is an important one. Good progress has been made, increasing the share of renewable electricity, and this has been a key part of corporates’ progress on emissions targets. But the coalition and its guidance support companies taking the next step by incentivising the full range of actions to accelerate the energy system’s transition to net zero. If you’re interested, you can get involved here and if you would like to put this into practice, you know where we are. 

By Patrick Bapty