National Grid will now measure staff performance on their carbon emissions as well as more traditional factors like customer service and reliability.

The utility will align its company-wide emissions with performance management to reduce its carbon footprint, and is encouraging the Government to work with business to devise a plan to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

National Grid's head of climate change and corporate responsibility, Joe Kwasnik, said: "We believe we are one of the first companies in the world to align company-wide emissions with performance management.

"Our new interim emissions reduction target of 45% by 2020 - which goes further than the EU's potential 30% reduction by 2020 - will provide a more relevant milestone for our business planning process and ensure emissions management is integrated into every aspect of our operational decision-making."