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Print articleThe report, 'Energy, Politics and Poverty', published today, warns that the government's current policies on energy security, climate change and development aid need to change. It argues that all three goals can be simultaneously achieved if they are coherently followed ? and spells out how the UK could do that.
The report is the result of several meetings by an international taskforce of scholars, high-level officials from the UN and government, and business advisers on energy, the environment, and development assistance. The taskforce was convened by the Director of Oxford's Global Economic Governance Programme, Dr Ngaire Woods, and the Director of Oxford's Institute of Energy Studies, Christopher Allsopp.
The report warns that the stakes are high: the wrong energy policy, misaligned with goals on climate change and global poverty risks, could create new enemies for Europe, new threats to energy supply, greater damage and worse poverty in the poorest parts of the world.
The main recommendations in the 24-page report detail: a better UK energy policy which forces some coherence among departments which are currently pursuing separate goals; a deeper, more robust EU energy framework which delivers security of energy supplies and addresses climate change; and development assistance policies which help poor countries to deal with climate change effects already being felt, and the new scramble for resources in Africa.
In the report, the taskforce recommends a much higher level of investment in carbon capture and sequestration, investment in other low-carbon technologies, a deepening and strengthening of EU-wide energy infrastructure development, and proper planning and regulation for a nuclear rebuilt if that is to proceed.
The taskforce recommends a tough, unified approach to Russia, much clearer UK goals in the EU, and a new compact forging cooperation with China and India ? which the US can join when it is ready.
The taskforce recommends that UK and EU aid policies respond immediately to the effects of climate change already being felt in poor countries. With EU partners, the UK should also considerably strengthen and implement global standards which will guard against the secretive, unfair, and corrupt exploitation of energy resources in poor countries.
The Chair of the taskforce, Lord Patten of Barnes, said:
?Britain's energy policy just doesn't stack up. It won't deliver security. It won't deliver on our commitments on climate change. It falls short of what the world's poorest countries need.?
The Co-director of the taskforce, Oxford University's Ngaire Woods, said:
?Government officials are each working on one small part of the problem - some are trying to deal with energy prices, others are trying to deal with climate change, some are working on global poverty. But nowhere is there a coherent strategic plan.?
Dr Kevin Watkins, Director of the UN Human Development Report Office, said:
?Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Britain is failing to respond to that challenge. Current policies suffer from two fundamental flaws. First, the targets set for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the Climate Change Bill are not ambitious enough. If other countries followed Britain's lead, dangerous climate change would be inevitable. Second, setting targets is not a substitute for reforming energy policy ? and Britain has yet to define the energy policies that will take us towards a low carbon future.?
