Policy

UK needs a coherent energy policy

February 19, 2013 10:29 am by Nick Butler

Ofgem warns bills could rise as UK may need to import more gas. Getty Images

Alistair Buchanan’s warning about the vulnerabilities of the UK energy supply system is serious and timely. The absence of a clear overall policy for energy supply and consumption means that in his words consumption levels are likely to be dangerously close to maximum capacity at times over the next few years and that UK consumers face the risk both of steadily rising prices and interruptions of supply.

It is impossible to disagree with these conclusions from Ofgem’s report. They are based on facts and hard analysis. Read more

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Posted in Electricity, Policy |

Climate change: time for Plan B

February 11, 2013 11:30 am by Nick Butler

How will Barack Obama tackle climate change? Getty Images

The comments in President Obama’s second inaugural speech on climate change have encouraged campaigners to think that something substantive is about to happen. It is always good to be optimistic, but the hard question is what exactly is he going to do and what will it achieve. Read more

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Posted in Climate, Policy |

What you won’t hear in Davos

January 23, 2013 10:00 am by Nick Butler

The World Economic forum is getting underway in Davos, Switzerland. Getty Images

Fashions come and go and the agenda for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos is usually a pretty good guide as to whether skirts are long or short this year. This year’s title for the meeting is “Resilient Dynamism”, which is very cool. But the issues that have slipped down the agenda are energy security and climate change.

There are a few odd sessions, but the focus has shifted and apart from one brief reference to natural resources, neither energy nor climate are mentioned on the web page setting out this year’s themes. This is a very big change from only four or five years ago, when both were prominent topics at every meeting. Read more

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Posted in Climate, Emissions, Policy |

The UK energy department’s corridors of power

January 16, 2013 4:38 pm by Nick Butler

The UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change has a new permanent secretary, as predicted before Christmas. The elegantly orchestrated process, along with a comparable process at the Home Office has reasserted the independence of the civil service appointments process. Sir David Normington, the first civil service commissioner is providing to be more than a match for Francis Maude, Theresa May and the others who want to make senior civil servants political appointees.

Stephen Lovegrove, the new man at the DECC, has a number of challenges to overcome. Read more

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Posted in Climate, Policy |

It’s time for the IEA to get real

January 8, 2013 4:09 pm by Nick Butler

A large proportion of oil is now exported to China. Getty Images

The International Energy Agency is one of the more successful of all the international institutions. It has avoided the rocks of ideology – unlike the IMF – and the sands of overweening bureaucracy – unlike the World Bank.

The Agency produces some excellent studies and first class data. But it badly needs to keep up with the times. No international agency working on energy should be excluding China and India from full membership.

The IEA was established in 1974 as a grouping of energy – particularly oil – importing countries to combat the market dominance of Opec. The crucial agreement behind its establishment was acceptance of the need to share the burden of adjustment in the event of any major supply disruption. “Rationing” – though the word was never used – was clearly preferable to a free-for-all bidding war in which countries sought to secure supplies for themselves. Read more

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Posted in Oil, Policy, Politics |
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