We are currently focusing on the decarbonisation of transport, heat and buildings

With electricity increasingly powered by the sun and wind, transport is now the most polluting sector internationally. In the UK, 19% of greenhouse gas emissions come from cars and vans alone. Electrification can have a major impact in reducing these emissions, particularly as electricity is increasingly sourced from renewables.

This progress means EVs are now significantly better for the climate and air quality over their lifetimes – and we’re exploring ways to speed up their mass adoption in an equitable way.

Fewer than 1% of vehicles on UK roads are currently fully electric, but more than 5% of new vehicles purchased are electric. Improvements in range, technology, cost and legislation will compound these gains.

We’re using learnings from real-world behaviours to inform likely network impacts and opportunities for EVs to help accommodate more renewables on the grid and reduce overall costs. Our approach builds on the bottom-up, data-driven simulation we’re applying to decarbonising heat, to consider issues of speed, fairness and affordability.

At around 10% of UK and global emissions, domestic heating generates more greenhouse gases than aviation, trucking or shipping. Our work on domestic heat is exploring what interventions can have the greatest impact on the decarbonisation of our homes.

Households are at the centre of our analysis. We’re applying insights from hundreds of thousands of households to understand how people make decisions and behave in practice. This informs our views of what can be done to nudge society in the right direction.

Our research builds on recent work to imagine different economic interventions, extending this to consider behavioural interventions and the impact of consistent policy in realising transformational tech cost reductions.

Fairness is a central consideration in our analysis. The renewal of our heating infrastructure is a great opportunity to address fuel poverty. While market-led approaches can be very powerful, we must be forensic about whether they work for all parts of society and what that means for policy design.