Transcript Slide 1

Sustainable energy: linking the local
and global agendas
Catherine Mitchell
University of Exeter
Overview
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Increasingly complex energy policy drivers
UK’s environmental challenge
Energy security concerns
Movement to a multipolar world
Supply chain issues
Sustainable development and poverty reduction
The challenge
Potential resolution – linking local with global
Climate change and energy
• The UK needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
60 - 80% by 2050 to limit temperature increase to around
2°C
• Most carbon dioxide emissions come from the use of
fossil fuels for energy
UK GHG emissions 2006
PFC
0%
SF6
0%
HFC
1%
Energy supply
34%
N2O
6%
CO2
85%
CH4
8%
Business
14%
Transport
20%
Public sector
2%
Residential
12%
Other
3%
www.defra.gov.uk
Where we’re at
UK emissions and targets
900
800
Basket of greenhouse
gases (CO2 equiv)
700
Carbon dioxide emissions
MTCO2e
600
500
Domestic carbon dioxide
target by 2010
400
Kyoto target by 2008-2012
(CO2 equiv)
300
Climate Change Bill low er
target
200
Climate Change Bill upper
target
100
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
Renewables in the UK energy mix
• Renewables currently
provide about 1.4% of
the energy used in the
UK
• UK signed up to EU
Action Plan with target of
15% renewable energy
by 2020
• Will require effective
policy to ensure uptake
UK energy consumption 2006 (%)
Transport
renewables,
0.1
Electricity,
21
Transport,
36.5
Renewable
heat, 0.3
Renewable
electricity, 1
Heat, 41
Challenge to UK Government:
• Urgent and major CO2 cuts needed while
meeting Energy Policy Goals (2007 EWP)
Goals:
• Environmental
• Social
• Equitable
• Local and global
• Secure
• Economic and competitive
• Question is: how best to do this?
The Complex World of Energy Policy
• The energy industry is liberalised and privatised
• Company interests may differ from Government or consumers
• People/customers more involved
• There are
• global environmental concerns
• a matter of urgency
• sustainable development concerns
• Global poverty reduction
• global resource depletion concerns
• security concerns
• access to resources
• terrorism
• other linked issues, such as food security
• Multiple low carbon technology pathways
Energy security of increasing
importance
• Technical issues of keeping lights on etc
• Physical issues of accessing/delivering
fuels/resources
• Eg Oil, gas, uranium
• Wider supply chain issues related to
accessing necessary resources to develop,
and maintain, a sustainable and secure
energy system (eg copper)
• UK now a net importer of energy having been
a net exporter until recently
Global backdrop - the move to a
multipolar world
• Economic and political power in the world is
changing
• Increasing tension in Middle East
• Changing dependencies between oil producing and
consuming countries
• Fall of Berlin Wall
• Breakup of Former Soviet Union
• Emergence of Russian nationalist capitalism
• New world powers of Russia, Brazil, China, India
leading to multipolar global governance
The Mulipolar Powers
• Are becoming increasingly important global economic
actors
• With increased energy and resource needs
• Are making strategic alliances
• Eg China and Africa for resources
• In order to strengthen supply chains
• Increasing energy and resource demand is leading to
increasing global resource prices
• Including global food prices, leading to food security becoming
serious global issue
• bioenergy
• Together, this is leading to complex outcomes
Supply Chain Vulnerability Increasing
• Oil and gas access and delivery is a supply chain issue
• Supply chains in general are becoming more complex
because of global sourcing
• Supply chain risks are increasing as multipolar powers
require and source resources, including energy
• Supply chains may be both strategically broken and developed
• New sustainable energy technologies need new supply
chains
• Already seen some difficulties with them
• To access resources and components
• Complex developing new supply chains, but in a multipolar,
resource-constrained world even more complex
SD, Millennium Goals and Poverty
• IPCC AR4 concluded that an essential
part of CC mitigation is global poverty
reduction
• Access to energy
• IPCC AR5 in early stages
• One aspect of IPCC Special Report on
Renewable Energy will look at role of RE in
reducing poverty reduction
Challenge for UK Government
• Has to meet climate change and sustainability
concerns, and quickly
• What may be energy secure may not be climate
secure
• The need to
• develop a set of principles of interaction with the new
multipolar powers, and then get going on developing
those relationships
• Enable development policies which complement
poverty reduction in parallel with energy and climate
security
• implement policies which counter the increasing
concerns about l-t availability, and price of, oil gas
and uranium
Meeting the challenge – requirements
for energy and climate security
• Reduce energy security risk by reducing dependence
on physical supply and increase resilience of supply
chains
• Reduce UK energy consumption in widest sense
• Not just direct energy use
• Foster supportive supply chain relationships through
foreign policy/international relations
• Link energy security and climate change requirements
(ie substantial emission reductions) with sustainable
energy definitions
• Stable, resilient, durable and robust (Stirling, 2008)
• Climate security
• Renewable energy and demand reduction
Problem for energy and climate policy
is:
• Physical and supply chain issues tend to be
dealt with separately from technical and
economic aspects of domestic infrastructure and
markets
• Energy security (ie geo-politics) issues tend to
be dealt with separately from environmental
concerns (ie climate security issues)
• Energy security tends to be dealt with separately
from other security issues, such as food security
and other interface issues related to system
change
Need to bring them together:
Decentralisation seems to be only way
to satisfactorily answer those demands:
• Arguable, not possible to achieve lifestyle changes
which leads to consumption changes without greater
connection of individuals to energy and sustainability
• Energy efficiencies (and therefore reduced
emissions) with greater linkage and decentralisation
of waste, agriculture and food production
• Decentralisation more able to deliver energy and
climate security needs
• Complex to link local and global and promote SD and
global poverty issues without decentralisation
What does this mean for policy now?
• Linking local and global
• Sustainable, climate secure, resilient policies
implies
• serious energy demand reduction (including via
buildings, transport, waste resources, food policy,
consumption)
• greater levels of renewables (heat, transport,
electricity)
• More local / people involvement
• Should build up supply chains for new
technologies