What we’ve done and what we’re going to do
2025/26 marked the final year of the RIIO-T2 regulatory period, providing an opportunity to assess how we performed against the environmental commitments set out in our 2021-2026 Environmental Action Plan (EAP). Our latest Annual Environmental Report brings together five years of progress and presents our final RIIO-T2 performance, highlighting where we achieved our commitments, where ambitions evolved, and the lessons that will shape our new Social and Environmental Action Plan (SEAP) for 2026-2031. In their introduction to the 2025/26 Annual Environmental Report, Alice Delahunty, President of National Grid Electricity Transmission, and Ciara Taberner, Director of Safety, Health, Environment and Communities, reflected on the strong progress made during RIIO-T2 and our continued commitment to delivering a clean, fair and affordable energy future while protecting the environment and creating value for communities. During RIIO-T2, our Environmental Action Plan evolved to respond to emerging priorities and industry developments, with new commitments introduced and existing commitments strengthened over time. We achieved 26 of the 28 commitments included in the final EAP, providing a strong foundation for the next stage of our sustainability journey.
A key achievement during RIIO-T2 was reducing our controllable Scope 1 and 2 emissions. By 2025/26, emissions had fallen by 38% against our FY19 baseline, exceeding our target of 34%. This reduction was driven largely by progress in tackling emissions from sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆), a highly potent greenhouse gas used in electricity transmission equipment. During 2025/26, emissions from SF6 were 41% lower than our FY19 baseline. To support further reductions, we continue to work closely with manufacturers and suppliers to deploy SF₆-free alternatives wherever viable and have installed multiple alternative technologies across our network. We also completed our RIIO-T2 vehicle electrification targets. All eligible company cars are now zero-emission vehicles, around 60% of our commercial fleet has been replaced with zero-emission vehicles, and more than 1,400 AC charging bays and 40 rapid DC chargers have been installed across National Grid sites. We have continued to embed sustainability into infrastructure delivery, becoming the first UK transmission owner to achieve PAS 2080 certification for carbon management in infrastructure. We are increasingly applying low-carbon design principles, improving resource efficiency and working with our supply chain to reduce the carbon intensity of construction.
Protecting and restoring nature remains a key priority. During RIIO-T2, we increased the environmental value of our non-operational land by 14.7%, exceeding our target of 10%, while all in-scope construction projects committed to delivering at least 10% biodiversity net gain. We have also established long-term partnerships with environmental organisations to support habitat creation, restoration and community engagement.
Alongside this, we improved resource efficiency across our operations and projects, achieving 100% diversion of construction waste from landfill, maintaining high recycling rates and increasing the use of circular economy approaches to reduce waste and conserve resources.
Looking ahead, our new Social and Environmental Action Plan (SEAP) for 2026-2031 builds on the foundations established during RIIO-T2. As investment in the electricity network increases, we will continue to focus on reducing operational emissions, tackling Scope 3 emissions, improving resource efficiency, enhancing biodiversity and delivering long-term benefits for communities and the environment.
Our Visual Impact Provision (VIP) projects in Dorset and the Peak District are now complete and finished removing pylons in 2022/23. Future schemes in Eryri (previously Snowdonia), and North Wessex Downs continue their development. Both remaining VIP schemes are scheduled to deliver their agreed outputs within RIIO-T3. Whilst Ofgem have determined that the Cotswolds VIP project should not go ahead and is in the process of being closed down.
Output Delivery Incentive (ODI) Case Studies
We are always working to improve our stakeholder engagement – this is why we place community relations, and its importance, at the heart of our projects and engage and communicate with stakeholders and communities throughout the lifecycle of our vital infrastructure schemes. This engagement helps us to develop and deliver effective consultation strategies and achieve planning consent for our projects from Local Authorities, or the Planning Inspectorate if a Development Consent Order (DCO) is required. Our approach also helps to keep various stakeholder groups informed about the essential work we need to do to maintain and enhance our networks and, it can help to increase public awareness and acceptance of the infrastructure we need to put in place. Through the learnings and improvements from our engagements, we can also continue to focus on delivering on longer term service level developments for our customers, stakeholders, and consumers.