The United Kingdom, long regarded as a global leader in climate action, is now grappling with political resistance that could jeopardize its decades-long progress toward net-zero emissions. The country’s pioneering Climate Change Act of 2008, one of the first in the world, legally bound successive governments to reduce carbon emissions on strict deadlines. At the time, the law enjoyed strong cross-party support—a consensus that is now eroding amid growing political and economic pressures.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch recently pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act if her party regains power. Meanwhile, the Reform Party, which has in some polls surpassed both the Conservatives and the incumbent Labour Party, seeks to eliminate the UK’s net-zero-by-2050 target. Public support for climate action remains resilient, with polling showing over 40% of UK citizens in favor of net-zero, but support is fragile: rising energy bills could push backing down to 13%, while opposition climbs to 50%.
Speaking to Bloomberg’s Zero podcast, Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy—the UK’s largest energy retailer—outlined strategies for reducing costs while accelerating clean energy adoption. Founded in 2015, Octopus Energy now serves about 8 million customers in the UK and operates Kraken Technologies, a software subsidiary that manages energy services for 70 million households across 27 countries.
Jackson highlighted systemic inefficiencies in the UK energy market. For instance, the government recently spent over £1 billion ($1.3 billion) paying wind farms to curtail output on windy days while simultaneously subsidizing gas plants to generate electricity, due to grid limitations. “Technologies of clean energy are getting cheaper every year,” Jackson said. “But if markets are not reformed, renewables can actually increase bills rather than lower them.”
A central part of Jackson’s strategy involves distributed energy infrastructure. By leveraging batteries in homes, electric vehicles, and heat pumps, the UK could reduce reliance on costly new grid construction. Jackson explained that most of the grid is designed to handle peak load—which occurs for just a few seconds per year—and that storing electricity closer to where it’s used could save billions in infrastructure costs. He emphasized that batteries in electric cars, which now make up one-third of new car sales in the UK, could play a critical role in this decentralized energy model.
Kraken Technologies exemplifies Octopus’s innovation, transforming energy utilities through modern cloud-based software. Utilities that have implemented Kraken have cut staff from 10,500 to 3,000 while raising customer satisfaction from 2/5 to 4/5 and moving from hundreds of millions in losses to profits of similar magnitude. The company is now exploring spinning out Kraken as an independent entity, potentially valued at $15 billion or more.
Jackson also pointed to global competition, particularly China, as a model for scaling cheap and abundant green energy. In August 2025 alone, China exported more than $20 billion in green-tech products—solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries—a figure equivalent to the U.S.’s total LNG exports for all of 2024. Wind turbines in China now cost roughly one-third of those in the UK, and solar power in some regions generates electricity for as little as 1–2 cents per kilowatt-hour. “Cheap energy underpins every industry,” Jackson noted, “whether AI data centers, clean manufacturing, or electric transportation.”
Beyond cost efficiency, Jackson highlighted resilience and security advantages of distributed energy. Comparing the Ukraine conflict, he explained that a single missile can destroy a gas power station, whereas equivalent renewable generation dispersed across wind, solar, and batteries would require dozens of attacks to disrupt. “Electricity should emulate the internet,” Jackson said. “We need decentralized systems with no single point of failure.”
Despite political turbulence and high energy prices, Jackson remains optimistic that public support for clean energy can be maintained. His proposals include introducing more granular energy pricing, reducing unnecessary grid expansion, and using technology to empower consumers to actively manage energy usage. For example, Octopus offers programs that charge electric vehicles or fill home batteries at the cheapest times of day, selling back electricity when prices are high—sometimes enabling households to run on effectively zero-cost energy.
The UK’s energy transition remains at a crossroads. After closing its last coal-fired power plant in 2024, the country aims to achieve 95% clean electricity by 2030. Yet, political shifts and the rising cost of living threaten to destabilize public consensus on climate policy. How the UK navigates this period could offer lessons for other nations balancing energy affordability, climate goals, and geopolitical pressures.
As Jackson told Bloomberg, “If you care about clean energy, you have to care about cost. The technologies exist. The markets can be reformed. What’s left is political will and public engagement.”
