Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JANUARY 2021 | 21 Policy & Regulation more likely to succeed in triggering mean- ingful economic and social bene ts from decarbonisation. But despite having the backing of august institutions like the National Infrastructure Commission, the Institution of Civil Engi- neers and the Energy Systems Catapult, cen- tral government is yet to take any meaningful measures to empower local and regional authorities to ght their own climate bat- tles – or so said the group of senior leaders gathered by Utility Week and Scottish Power at a recent virtual roundtable discussion on the role of local energy in a "fair" low carbon transition. Winning over Whitehall At Utility Week's Build Back Better Forum in October 2020, energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng shared warm words about the essential part local authorities have to play in achieving net zero. But participants at this roundtable event said that in practice central government remains resistant to the devolution of powers or nance to local and regional authorities to help support the crea- tion and delivery of rigorous decarbonisation strategies. They also claimed that there is a predi- lection in central policy-making for devis- ing market mechanisms and incentives to promote investment in big infrastructure, rather than developing frameworks to boost the role of small-scale or less tangible low carbon technology areas like demand-side response, which are needed to create mean- ingful change at local level. Participants pointed to the emphasis on o‡ shore wind in the prime minister's recent 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution as a demonstra- tion of this point. An energy policy specialist representing central government at the event acknowl- edged this broad criticism of government's approach, saying it was "fair" to say national government has been traditionally "not very good at thinking in a meaningful and joined- up way" about local and regional ownership of energy strategy. And they assured that there is now greater understanding that the next phase of decarbonisation cannot, as another contributor phrased it "be o‡ -shored to windfarms in the North Sea". Instead, it will need to "take place in places". Having made this assurance, however, our energy policy expert also pushed back on the assumed wisdom within the group that a local approach to energy transition neces- sarily translates to a fairer energy transition. "There are local and regional approaches which could be more unfair that a national one," they cautioned. This comment opened up an extensive debate around the advantages and potential unintended consequences for regional and social equity that greater decarbonisation autonomy for localities might give rise to. Key to this discussion was the role of Ofgem in either facilitating or hampering local e‡ orts through its approach to energy network regulation. Several debate participants highlighted that the current approach to setting network spending allowances is leading to a situation in which local and city-region ambitions for decarbonisation are being undermined by an inability to in' uence the pace or scale of investment in critical network infrastructure. Some attendees advocated a "decentrali- sation of regulation" to combat this chal- lenge, while others worried that this might create complexity and increase the risk of inequality between regions with the intellec- tual and nancial resources to move quicker than others on delivering their net zero goals. Whatever the answer to this challenge and the many others covered during the course of this lively and thought-provoking debate, there was a resounding consensus from those involved that the scale and urgency of the climate emergency means that solutions will need to emerge through a process of adaptation and evolution in our existing policy and energy system architectures – rather than through the creation of new entities to coordinate local and national decarbonisation. Unanimously, our participants agreed that the latter approach would be too time consuming. Progress, however imperfect, cannot be delayed. Jane Gray, content director in association with What attendees said "Taking action on fuel poverty has signifi cant implications in terms of savings to a city region. Taking somebody out of fuel poverty does amazing things for their health and wellbeing." "One of the big challenges around net zero at a local level is the capacity within local organisations to deliver this." "I would draw a distinction between local authority capacity and local capacity. There is a great deal of expertise in universities, community groups, local businesses." "The sophistication of our data and understanding of how local energy systems work and interact isn't good enough yet." "If directly elected leaders in local government cannot engage constructively with directly elected leaders in national government then there's something wrong with our institutions that won't be solved establishing another one."

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