Magento 2 – Set Email Template for customer_account_information_change_email_template

In your template you could use a custom block like this

{{block type='fooman_example/email' config_var='SOCIALBUTTONS'}}

and then in your block based on Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template_Filter

<?php
class Fooman_Example_Block_Email extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
{

    protected function _toHtml()
    {
        $customVarValue = '';
        $variable = Mage::getModel('core/variable')
            ->setStoreId(Mage::app()->getStore()->getStoreId())
            ->loadByCode($this->getConfigVar());
        if ($value = $variable->getValue(Mage_Core_Model_Variable::TYPE_HTML)) {
            $customVarValue = $value;
        }
        return $customVarValue;
    }
}

I changed the email section a little in the config.xml

  <template>
        <email>
            <new_mto translate="label" module="mto">
                <label>New MTO</label>
                <file>sales/new_mto.html</file>
                <type>html</type>
            </new_mto>
        </email>
    </template>

and called it a little differently

 try {
            $storeObj = Mage::getModel('core/store')->load(1);
            $customerEmailId = 'thomas@email.co.uk';
            $customerFName = 'john';
            $customerLName = 'doe';

            $emailTemplate = Mage::getModel('core/email_template')
                    ->loadDefault('new_mto');

            $emailTemplateVariables = array();
            $emailTemplateVariables['order'] = '$order';
            $emailTemplateVariables['store'] = '$storeObj';
            $emailTemplateVariables['payment_html'] = '$method';


            $emailTemplate->setSenderName('Magento');
            $emailTemplate->setSenderEmail('sender.com');
            $emailTemplate->setType('html');
            $emailTemplate->setTemplateSubject('Add a subject');
            $emailTemplate->send($customerEmailId, $customerFName . $customerLName, $emailTemplateVariables);
            return true;
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            $errorMessage = $e->getMessage();
            return $errorMessage;
        }

This now works for me exactly as I wanted.