The UK’s Climate Change Act sets an admirably simple, legally-binding framework for carbon reduction. The targets are clear. Yet the means to achieve them are opaque. As the government considers strengthening the UK’s targets, and moving toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the IGov project has offered evidence to the Committee on Climate Change on governance of the energy system. Pointing out the multiple, confusing institutions, policies and timeframes that characterise energy governance, IGov argue that governance structures should be reformed so that there is a clear sense of direction, and a shared understanding of the need to transform the energy system. The current system of energy governance is confusing and opaque, to say the least. The diagram below, showing institutional relationships in the electricity system alone, was drawn up by my Exeter colleague Bridget Woodman as a teaching aid. She soon realised that her efforts to demystify the system for her students actually laid bare the horrors of mismatched priorities and unclear linkages, as she explains in this blog.
IGov 25th Jan 2019 read more »
