The Political Economy of Sustainable Energy (Energy, Climate and the Environment)

this Book Analyzes The Extent To Which The Current Political Paradigm Is Capable Of Meeting The Challenges Of Climate Change. Placing The Uk In Comparative Perspective, Leading Energy Expert Catherine Mitchell Argues For A New Way Of Approaching Policy Towards Energy And Sustainability. The Political Economy of Sustainable Energy analyzes the extent to which the current political paradigm is capable of meeting the challenges of climate change. Placing the UK in comparative perspective, leading energy expert Catherine Mitchell argues for a new way of approaching policy towards energy and sustainability. Climate change is a local, national and global challenge. This book analyses the extent to which the UK's current political paradigm is capable of meeting the challenges of climate change. It argues that it is unlikely that the UK's energy policy will be able to deliver sufficient change to enable a move to a sustainable energy economy unless there are fundamental changes to the way that governments take decisions and make policies. A leading scholar in the field, Catherine Mitchell argues that the political paradigm leads to energy policy decisions made on the basis of narrow market and economic analyses. Only when the complexity of the energy system is recognized and energy policies are implemented as a result of a broader 'system' based analysis of economic, technological, institutional and social factors is there any chance of a successful shift to a sustainable energy system. Placing the UK in comparative perspective, Catherine Mitchell argues for a new way of approaching policy towards energy and sustainability Contents......Page 6 List of Abbreviations......Page 7 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Series Editor's Preface......Page 11 1 Breaking Free of the Band of Iron......Page 14 2 The Regulatory State Paradigm – and Its Challenges......Page 34 3 The Difficulty of Delivering the 'Right' Change Quickly Enough......Page 74 4 Preferable Intervention – the Pursuit of Nuclear Power......Page 109 5 Renewable Energy in the UK......Page 134 6 Markets and Networks – Pure Paradigm and Effect......Page 149 7 New Zealand as a Case Study......Page 175 8 Examining European Political Paradigms......Page 191 9 'Just do it' – Solutions, Opportunities and Realities......Page 211 Notes......Page 228 References and Further Reading......Page 230 C......Page 243 E......Page 244 I......Page 245 N......Page 246 P......Page 247 S......Page 248 Y......Page 249 ' ... Mitchell ... knows how to clearly set out complicated issues. Her arguments are well thought out, passionate and exciting ... The publication of her book is very timely ... '- Power UK (Platts) ' ... Mitchell has done an excellent job of distilling the torrent of Government pronouncements and an immense amount of research into a meaningful and manageable volume. More than that, she has made sense of the tensions between short and long term decisions which Governments face.'- Colin Axon, Energy Group Newsletter Mitchell analyses the extent to which the current political paradigm is capable of meeting the challenges of climate change. She argues that unless there are fundamental changes to policy-making, it is unlikely that energy policies will be able to deliver sufficient change to enable a move to a sustainable energy economy