This paper addresses one of the fundamental issues in the transition to net zero: how to resolve the accrual of national decarbonisation benefits with the imposition of regional network costs through distribution charges. It examines this through the lens of North Scotland, where the tension between these two forces is most explicit, but illustrates how reforms of different varieties will have wider distributional effects on all users of the power system. Our analysis suggests that reform is absolutely necessary if fair and sustainable decarbonisation is to occur, and we would suggest that the process of determining what, when and how changes are made is begun today.
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