Recommendation 23

We also asked the Department about how government can influence consumer behaviour. The Department told us that its modelling of power sector decarbonisation by 2035 covers different pathways characterising different assumptions of consumer behaviour and energy efficiency (such as home storage), but acknowledged that it does not know which of those pathways we are on.71 We reported in March 2022 that significant uncertainty remains as to whether consumers will rapidly change their behaviours in line with the expectations of government’s Net Zero Strategy, and that government has a poor track record of engaging consumers, including over-estimating buy-in to its policies.72 69 Qq 33–34 70 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme, Twenty-Seventh Report of Session 2021–22, HC 635, December 2021 71 Q 37 72 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Achieving Net Zero: Follow up, Forty-First Report of Session 2021–22, HC 642, March 2022 16 Decarbonising the power sector