Waste Britain: UK's emissions could be cut at flick of a switch

That's a headline from the Indie. There's nothing new in the notion that many small actions can have a significant effect. However, what the article is really highlighting is some research from Imperial College suggesting that the marginal electricity emission factors used by DECC are too low. I wonder though. In the days of the old Power Pool system that might have been true, provided that the demand reduction was large enough, but these days the electricity market doesn't work like that - it's all about bilateral agreements - and on the assumption that demand volatility won't change then there won't be any change in the plant required for system balancing. I may be wrong - this is top of the head stuff - but I shall carry on using DECC's factors for the time being.