In addition to Ofgem’s principal statutory objective to protect the interests of present and future consumers, we have important secondary duties relating to the environment and sustainable development. We carefully consider the impacts of all our decisions on the environment and sustainable development.
Ofgem’s environmental policy work falls into various different categories:
- Work as a result of our statutory duties which relate to the environment (for example, improving incentives to reduce losses from the networks and facilitating the connection of cleaner forms of generation).
- Work to advise Government departments and regulators on their work (for example, contributing to discussions on the development of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and advising government on the future development of some environmental programmes).
- Work to monitor and enforce companies’ compliance with licence conditions (for example, the obligations on supply companies to provide energy efficiency advice and fuel mix disclosure).
- Work to improve its understanding of the environmental impacts of its policies and to inform its policy choices (for example, we produce environmental impact assessments for significant policy proposals).