ABSTRACT
Energy is a complex policy area with global, national and local environmental and social impacts and policy problems. First, in environmental terms, anthropogenic climate change is considered to be one of the greatest threats to human security (UNFCCC, 2012, 2013). The need to reduce carbon emissions has dominated the global environmental policy agenda since the 1990s, and while at the time of writing there are currently no climate targets in place (the lifespan of the Kyoto Protocol having expired), international discussions continue to seek new targets (UNFCCC, 2013). While much of the debate focuses on the role and responsibility of rapidly developing/newly industrialised countries within reduction targets, climate negotiations typically start from the view that developed countries must take some responsibility for climate change and resulting policies, given their current and historic emissions (Snell and Haq, 2014). At the EU level, for example, a variety of mechanisms are in place (such as the EU ETS) in order to reduce carbon emissions. Equally, at the national level, in the UK, the Blair government set a legally binding target of an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 (Climate Change Committee, 2015). There has been increasing policy concern about energy security, partly due to dwindling energy supplies but also as a result of geopolitics (especially where energy resources are concentrated in politically unstable regions), population growth and development (Sovacool and Mukherjee, 2011; Pollitt, 2012; Chester, 2010). While UK Coalition government policy continued to follow the UK climate targets set under the Climate Change Act, there was also a noticeable increase in discussions of energy security (Davey, 2014). Second, in social terms, despite the unsustainable use of fossil fuels, access to energy is unequally distributed, both between and within countries (Sovacool et al., 2014). At the global level, the poorest countries have typically contributed little to the problem of climate change but are often exposed to the greatest effects associated with rising sea levels, reduced crop productivity and desertification, while simultaneously not benefiting
from reliable sources of energy (Sovacool and Dworkin, 2014). Even within the world’s richest countries, such as the UK, large inequalities exist, with up to an additional 35,000 individuals dying prematurely during the winter months, attributed in part to their being unable afford to heat their homes sufficiently (NICE, 2014). This social dimension of energy adds a layer of complexity to the nature of the problem – described by some as a ‘wicked’ policy problem with inherent conflicts, tensions and contradictions (Kerley, 2012; Gupta et al., 2014) – and also means that policy solutions are less straightforward. It is the tension that exists within developed countries such as the UK1 that this chapter focuses on.
