Energy policy is dead! Long live energy policy! New book sparks debate
The Shadow Energy Minister, Charles Hendry MP, told an audience In London that the UK can no longer "get by without an energy policy". Given today's challenges, "one needs the Government to intervene or to play a more active role than it has". However, as other speakers at the launch of Energy for the Future - A New Agenda (Palgrave Macmillan) noted, this will be no easy matter. Planning ahead, attracting and retaining investors and moving swiftly to a low carbon energy system will throw up extraordinary challenges and shape a new agenda for energy policy.
Charles Hendry found Energy for the Future "an extremely good assessment of how we got to where we are and what needs to be done next." He argued that the UK has to become an exciting place to invest in low carbon technologies, and that we need to decarbonise electricity supplies as a matter of urgency. "Government has to help to make sure we can deliver those changes. It needs therefore more than just a framework and leaving business to invest... There has to be change. We cannot meet the challenges unless Government says 'we have a role to play in leadership".
Further details can be found here (pdf, 16kb)
Sussex Energy Group seminar - UK energy security: What do we know, and what should be done?
The Sussex Energy Group held a successful one day seminar in London on 27th January 2009: UK energy security: What do we know, and what should be done? See below for copies of presentations made by the speakers:
- Andy Stirling - What is security? Some key concepts (ppt, 915kb)
- Lucia van Guens - International oil markets: Implications for UK energy security policy (pdf, 670kb)
- Elizabeth Cuthbertson - Analysis of UK energy security in Government (ppt, 430kb)
- Andy Boston - A corporate view (pdf, 282kb)
- Jonathan Stern - UK Gas Security: an evidence based approach (ppt, 1Mb)
- Jim Watson - Unpacking UK energy security: what are the key threats? (ppt 120kb)
- Jim Skea - Modelling a resilient UK system (ppt, 2Mb)