Brexit and climate change policy: is the UK's energy trilemma set to become merely a dilemma?

摘要

Government in the United Kingdom (UK) frequently cites the need for the UK's energy system to address the 'energy trilemma', by ensuring energy security, affordability and sustainability. Keeping this trilemma in balance has been at the core of the government's approach to regulating the domestic energy sector and detailed in a number of policy reports, including the 2011 White Paper on the future of the UK's electricity market. However; the UK's prospective departure from the European Union (EU) has the potential to threaten that balance if heightened concerns around the ongoing interconnection of UK energy markets and infrastructure with its European neighbours and the cost of energy going forward overshadow the imperative to decarbonise. This article analyses key elements of the UK's current climate change policy for the energy sector at international, EU and domestic level and how vulnerable they will be to challenge if 'Brexit' materialises.