What we’ve done and what we’re going to do
During RIIO-T2 we published an annual Environmental Report, the latest of which you can read here. We also published our RIIO-T2 Environmental Action Plan which can be read here.
Alice Delahunty, NGET President and Ciara Taberner, Director of Safety, Health, Environment and Communities, highlighted in their welcome message of the Annual Environmental Report that “The scale of investment in the UK’s electricity infrastructure is unprecedented and will continue up to 2030 alongside the UK government’s clean power agenda. Our challenge is to ensure climate and nature remain fully integrated into our plans. As the size our business and investment levels increase, we recognise that maintaining progress towards our ambitious climate targets will be difficult. We also know that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to enhance the natural environment by ensuring we include nature positive outcomes into our projects. This is a challenge we are ready to embrace together, and our Environmental Action Plan will hold us to account”.
For the wider environmental scorecard, we outperformed targets in all six of the measures. Another measure is Business Carbon Footprint (BCF). In year four, our emissions reduced by 30% from our 2019 baseline which is ahead of the target of 27%.
SF6 gas is a great insulator of electricity, but it is a greenhouse gas. One of our commitments is to remove all SF6 from our network by 2050 and we’re already working with our supply chain to find SF6 free alternatives. Total emissions in 2024/25 were 35% lower than our 2019 baseline and a 17% improvement on last year.
We have completed the installation of electric vehicle charging points across our operational sites to align to our strategy of replacing our fleet with electric vehicles. We have now replaced 45% of the fleet with zero emission vehicles and are on track to hit our target of 60% by the end of RIIO-T2.
We are committed to tackling biodiversity loss and climate change in tandem by minimising the nature and carbon impacts of construction projects. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, having set science-based decarbonisation targets and shown industry leadership by requiring biodiversity enhancements for our construction projects in advance of legislation.
Looking forward, we’re developing a joint roadmap towards net zero and nature positive construction. The roadmap sets out clear time-bound actions and commitments that will deliver co-benefits for both nature and climate as we continue to build the network of the future.
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), North Wessex Downs and the Cotswolds continue their development. For instance, the tunnel boring machine (called Buddug) started its 3.4km journey beneath the Dwyryd estuary in May 2025. These schemes will ultimately underground over 22km of overhead line from these National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. All three remaining VIP schemes are on target to deliver their agreed outputs in RIIO-T3.
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.