News
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New Thinking Blog: Fracking on (the) Horizon
Fracking on (the) Horizon Tom Steward, IGov Team, 25th June, 2013 About Tom: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/tom-steward/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steward_T Last week’s episode of the BBC’s Horizon set about making the case for fracking – investigating ‘what we in Britain can learn from the American experience’. If the programme is to be believed, we seem to be able to look forward to all of the benefits, with none of the draw-backs that come with investment in fracking. Call me cynical, but I’m not entirely convinced. Horizon’s story began with a visit to a shale drilling rig in Pennsylvania, with
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New Thinking Blog: Understanding Energy Transition
Understanding Energy Transition Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 24th June, 2013 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko Those of us who are interested in sustainable energy transition need to develop deeper understandings of how and why change of a profound nature takes place. Looking at our complex world from a climate change perspective, however, inclines us to focus on new knowledge about anthropogenic climate change as the principal driver for change to current energy governance institutions. For example, we often cite this knowledge as underpinning international and domestic targets for reducing carbon emissions as well as related
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Presentation: UK Energy Transition – Ideational Variety and Differential Change
Presentation: UK Energy Transition – Ideational Variety and Differential Change From: Caroline Kuzemko To: 4th International Conference on Sustainability Transitions – Zurich, June 2013 Download Presenation: UK Energy Transition June 2013 Summary: Takes socio-technical transitions literatures, and Transitions Management, as a starting point upon which to build understandings of low carbon transition Add in sociological institutionalism and role of ideas in both constraining, colouring and enabling change Principal claim is that governance interventions to support low carbon transition are highly contested Case study of UK energy governance change over the past 10 years shows multiple drivers
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Book: The Energy Security-Climate Nexus
The Energy Security-Climate Nexus: Institutional Change in the UK and Beyond By Caroline Kuzemko In the advent of important crises of both climate change and energy supply (in)security, questions are being asked about changes in energy governance. Caroline Kuzemko explains how and why change takes place and discusses the convoluted UK energy governance system that has emerged between 2000 and the present day. She applies a complex theoretical approach based on new institutional concepts of policy paradigm change, but which also utilises concepts of (de)politicisation and securitization. UK energy governance, like energy policy elsewhere, is
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New Thinking Blog: March of the market makers?
March of the market makers? Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 14th June 2013 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics Ofgem’s new proposals for liquidity in the wholesale electricity market, out this week, have already attracted a lot of attention. The press release says that : “Industry has responded positively to some of the challenges Ofgem has set for increasing liquidity in the wholesale power market”, but reports are already filtering through that the Big Six are, not surprisingly, unhappy. If the changes do come through, it is unclear what the implications would be for movement towards a
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Working Paper: Politicizing UK Energy: What Speaking Energy Security Can Do
Politicizing UK Energy: What Speaking Energy Security Can Do By: Dr Caroline Kuzemko, Energy Policy Group, University of Exeter EPG Working Paper: 1303 Abstract This paper explores one set of conditions under which a policy area, energy, became politicized. It also explores the relationship between concepts of ‘speaking security’, which claim that the language of security is politically potent, and notions of (de-)politicization. It argues that framing energy supply as a security issue influenced an opening up of UK energy, which had been subject to processes of depoliticization since the early 1980s, to political interest
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New Thinking Blog: What the decarbonisation vote says about Britain
What the decarbonisation vote says about Britain Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 7th June, 2013 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell On 4 June 2013, 290 MPs to 267 voted against an amendment to the Energy Bill to include a decarbonisation target of 30% by 2030. Such a target is in line with the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) recommendation to meet the UK’s policy of 80% cut by 2050, which in turn relates to maintaining a 2 degree global rise in climate change. A 30% target would also fit with wider requirements to get Europe onto a pathway
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New Thinking Blog: Climate Governance by Targets: Where are we now?
Climate Governance by Targets: Where are we now? Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 5th June, 2013 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko A recent and perhaps controversial report by the Berlin based think-tank, SWP Berlin, poses some interesting questions about the global warming limit, and about climate governance by target setting. It strongly suggests, based on current global emissions trends, that the 2°C limit will be exceeded. It proceeds however not by discussing what policies are still needed in order that the target be met, but by taking the more radical step of analysing ways in which
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Guest Blog: The Importance of Gas in UK Energy Policy
The Importance of Gas in UK Energy Policy Guest Blog from Graham White, IGov Advisory Group – 3rd June 2013 Current energy policy debate in the UK tends to focus on the role of nuclear and renewables, particularly wind, and the level of subsidy energy users should pay for the development of these low carbon technologies. At a time of economic hardship the balance of energy policy across its three main objectives – security of supply, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and affordability – is under scrutiny and has started to increasingly focus on consumer bills. This
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New Thinking Blog: Contracts for Difference – Devilishly Detailed
Contracts for Difference – Devilishly Detailed Tom Steward, IGov Team, 30th May, 2013 About Tom: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/tom-steward/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steward_T It seems the Government and EDF may be moving towards shaking hands on a deal to financially support to a new nuclear plant in Somerset, Hinkley C. Unsurprisingly, this has led to enormous speculation over how much consumers will have to shell out over the coming decades – such as here, here and here. These figures are little short of terrifying, and although I think they should be taken with a healthy pinch of salt[1], I want to explain why
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