Environment & Energy
UK Energy and Environment Policy TimelineLatest Environment & Energy Publications

Warmer Homes: Improving fuel poverty and energy efficiency policy in the UK
Richard HowardWarmer Homes presents a character profile of the 2.3 million households in England living in fuel poverty. Among the findings in the report is the fact that nearly half of all fuel poor households (1.1m) are in work, challenging the perception that fuel poverty primarily involves the elderly and retired.

Going, Going, Gone: The role of auctions and competition in renewable electricity support
Simon Moore and Guy NeweyThis report calls for plans to introduce auctioning to enable all technologies to compete on a level playing field should be brought forward. It points to Brazil, where prices for onshore wind have dropped to world record lows since auctioning was introduced. If the UK can achieve a even a fraction of the results from Brazil, it would allow much greater decarbonisation for the available budget.

Getting Interconnected: How can interconnectors compete to help lower bills and cut carbon?
Simon Moore and Guy NeweyConnecting the UK to power stations in other countries could help bring down energy bills and meet our decarbonisation targets. Getting Interconnected shows that interconnectors could save British consumers as much as £1bn a year, as well as allowing access to zero-carbon electricity. The report calls for overseas generators to be allowed to compete for government subsidy in the new capacity market and endorses ways to ensure that revenue supports development of new interconnector links.
Latest Environment & Energy Blogs

Can hydrogen and CCS save one another?
Matt Rooney, Policy Exchange’s Energy and Environment Research Fellow – argues that marrying the visions for CCS and hydrogen manufacture could bring multiple benefits to the UK.

Clean Growth: How can we improve business energy efficiency?
Policy Exchange’s Energy and Environment unit announces the launch of its new project looking at the opportunities for and barriers to boosting business energy efficiency. Richard Howard and Joshua Burke set out the context for this project, and identify the important questions they will seek to answer.

What has been missed or misunderstood in this week’s Euratom debate?
Matt Rooney — Policy Exchange’s Energy and Environment Research Fellow — reflects on the way in which the Government’s view that leaving the EU must also mean leaving Euratom has made this previously obscure treaty into a ‘political battleground’. Calling for a national discussion about how to withdraw from Euratom smoothly, he posits that this will be the ‘first real test of the UK’s ability to leave the EU and open up to the world’.
Latest Environment & Energy News

Tackle cold homes, ministers told
Richard HowardBBC News covers the Rt Hon David Cameron’s speech on prison reform held at Policy Exchange.

Smog ‘red alert’ forces schools to close in Beijing
Richard HowardThe TES cites findings from Policy Exchange’s recent report on air pollution – Up in the Air- that 25% of London’s schoolchildren attend schools in areas with air pollution above legal limits.

Global warming and the threat to humanity
Policy ExchangeUp In the Air, Policy Exchange’s new report on air pollution in London, is covered in a leader column in the Evening Standard. The report shows that in some London boroughs as many as 60% of school children go to school in areas with air pollution that is higher than the legal limit.