Malcolm Dowden & Simon Ewing discuss issues affecting the coalition government’s energy objectives
The Coalition government published its first Annual Energy Statement in July 2010. It observes that the rationale for action is economic as well as environmental.
With its own oil and gas resources declining, failure to act now would make the UK more vulnerable to high, and volatile, oil and gas prices. It confirmed the government’s mission “to support the transition to a secure, safe, low-carbon, affordable energy system in the UK, and to mobilise commitment to ambitious action on climate change internationally”.
The statement sets out 32 actions intended to promote those objectives. They range from measures designed to remove barriers to investment in energy efficiency, to the promotion of a range of renewable energy technologies and an increase in the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction target from 20%–30%.
It is, necessarily, a complex area. Increasingly, responses to government consultations are highlighting the scope for conflict between policies and objectives, and the risk of challenge or litigation should policies be amended or withdrawn once parties or industry sectors have relied
