The Scottish Government's Energy Strategy is due for publication this afternoon. Yesterday however, the UK Government published its Green Paper on Industrial Strategy. Perhaps, we were optimistic as to the integration of energy into the new strategy.
As it turns out, when it comes to energy, the new commitments from the UK Government can be summed up as two reviews, a plan and a roadmap - see summary page (page 94) from the energy chapter of the Green Paper.
There is however one point of note. BEIS signalled a change in direction of policy by consigning the energy trilemma to history. It did not articulate an overarching framework to replace the trilemma, but did say that two areas of energy policy "require a higher priority" - "the affordability of energy" and "securing the industrial opportunities...of energy innovation". The paper did say that security of supply is "foundational" and that climate change targets are "settled policy", so BEIS is not proposing fundamental change to these policy objectives.
The upcoming reviews signal that there remains much to play for in the development of energy policy, but if you want to influence policy, your chances of success will be better if you can frame proposals in light of the objectives of affordability and securing the industrial opportunities.
Contributor
Partner
