Decision-support tools for the assessment of co-benefits: Insights from UK energy and climate policy
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Abstract
Demand-side energy measures are important for achieving net-zero targets, but these interventions are often viewed as lacking a strong investment case or public support. Hence, it is important to incorporate wider socio-economic and environmental benefits into policy assessments of demand-side and supply-side energy measures. This presentation examines the motivations and institutional contexts for the development and application of new assessment approaches to support decision-making at sub-national policy levels in the UK.
The analysis draws on a methodological review of 28 frameworks and 27 interviews with policy entrepreneurs involved in their design and implementation. These frameworks provide different approaches to incorporating multiple benefits, or ‘co-benefits,’ of energy measures into assessments across policy domains. This enables policy officers to formulate policies that advance multiple economic, social and environmental goals simultaneously. We conclude by considering how new co-benefit decision-support tools shape policy selection, political feasibility, and the public acceptability of low-energy pathways.
Bios:
Tim Foxon is Professor of Sustainability Transitions at SPRU, University of Sussex. He is currently co-investigator on the Governance theme of the Energy Demand Research Centre. His research explores how the assessment of co-benefits of energy demand reduction measures relates to citizens’ well-being, and how social norms and economic framings affect policy decisions on ways of reducing energy consumption, while delivering benefits to citizens. Key aims are to identify useful and inclusive frameworks for UK Net Zero policy, to assess how different economic paradigms influence different stakeholder perspectives and to inform processes for governing low energy demand pathways.
Josh Lait is Research Fellow in the Governance of Energy Demand Reduction at SPRU, University of Sussex. His research explores the co-benefits of climate action and the economic framings of energy demand policies. His doctoral research examined the unintended consequences of non-energy policies for the governance of energy demand in the UK education sector. He has held an energy research fellowship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.