Policy Exchange

Related Publications

• What Would a Competitive Domestic Energy Retail Market Look Like? Success metrics for retail market reform

  03 April 2013

  On 14th February 2013, Policy Exchange held a roundtable discussion to help stimulate debate on what success for proposed new regulation of the energy retail market would look like and how it could be measured. This publication is a summary of the remarks made at that event.

• Fuelling Transition: Prioritising resources for carbon emissions reduction

  08 June 2012

  Fuelling Transition says the electricity market needs to be allowed to invest in gas as a transition fuel, subject to a long-term EU emissions cap. Extending the EU cap to 2035 would give greater certainty to investors, allowing the market to decide which technology has the most potential to deliver emission reductions at the cheapest cost.

• Nurturing Nature: Policy to protect and improve biodiversity

  11 May 2012

  The planning system is failing to protect some of England's most threatened wildlife and important habitats. Nurturing Nature finds that mechanisms designed to protect England's natural environment and compensate for any damage to it are haphazardly applied and woefully monitored.

• Gas Works? Shale gas and its policy implications

  24 February 2012

  Gas Works? says that the government is “unnecessarily gambling with billpayers' money”. It says that the UK’s energy generation plans are based on forecasting future gas prices which is a flawed strategy, potentially resulting in the UK missing out on the potential economic and environmental benefits of shale gas.

• The Full Cost to Households of Renewable Energy Policies

  18 January 2012

  This report accuses the Government of not clearly presenting the full impacts and costs of climate and renewable energy policies on households, and outlines how the UK could meet its carbon targets while saving households hundreds of pounds.

• Greening the economy - not 'green economy'

  18 January 2012

  The current policy of subsidising select UK 'green' industries is based not on the subsidies for such selected sectors being the best way to reduce carbon emissions, but that a principal objective of these public subsidies is to promote UK growth, exports and employment. This is a big gamble, with renewables policies costing tens of billions of pounds more than necessary to meet 2020 carbon reduction targets.

• Boosting Energy IQ: UK energy efficiency policy for the workplace

  28 July 2011

  Based on interviews with 22 energy experts and analysis of current policy, Boosting Energy IQ finds the UK's overlapping climate policies are unnecessarily complex. Moreover, they have created multiple carbon prices across the non-domestic sector. This risks making overall carbon reductions more expensive.

• Water retail services competition in England and Wales: Still Hobson's choice?

  25 July 2011

  Water Retail Services Competition in England and Wales recommends that vertically-integrated local water monopolies should be partially broken up, with businesses and public sector organisations given the right to choose their water retail suppliers.

• Untapped Potential: Better protecting rivers at lower cost

  04 July 2011

  Untapped Potential identifies reforms to regulatory arrangements for abstraction and water supply, to better protect rivers and natural environments at lower costs.

• 2020 Hindsight: Does the renewable energy target help the UK decarbonise?

  05 May 2011

  2020 Hindsight examines 16 different plans for achieving the UK target of an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050. None of the models showed that the UK’s commitment to producing 35% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 was needed to reach its carbon target.

• Carbon Omissions: Consumption-based accounting for international carbon emissions

  19 November 2010

  Carbon Omissions reveals that Britain is actually consuming almost a third more CO2 than it was in 1990. The difference is that much of the carbon consumed in the UK and EU is “embedded” in products imported from countries such as China rather than produced in the UK.

• Green Bills: An analysis of the projected levy in energy bills

  17 August 2010

  Green Bills reveals how the total levy in energy – effectively tax to pay for climate and renewable energy policies – is set to soar by 2020. Figures reveal that by 2020, the cost of policies like the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs – which pay householders to produce power uneconomically through technologies like solar – will hit over £16 billion a year.

• Greener, Cheaper

  27 July 2010

  The report suggests that a carbon tax would be a more cost-effective way of ensuring that Britain goes greener more quickly and more efficiently with a simpler, better targeted policy which is credible over the long term.

• Cold Comfort - Fuel Poverty and the Winter Fuel Payment

  23 March 2010

  This report calls for a more honest approach from government. We argue that if the government wishes to use the Winter Fuel Payment funding to boost the incomes of older people, it should do so transparently through the pensions or benefits system. If, on the other hand, it is serious about helping people who struggle to heat their homes, the government should focus on improving domestic energy efficiency and effective approaches to tackling poverty.