Energy in a Low Carbon Economy: New roles for governments and markets

Introduction

For the past two decades, European energy policy has been based on the belief that markets are best able to provide secure supplies of energy at the lowest cost. As a consequence, Governments have, to varying degrees, delegated the responsibility for the provision of energy to industry.  Now that participants are facing large investment programmes, on account of ageing asset replacement and targets for renewable energy and greenhouse gas reductions, many are questioning whether these companies will be willing or able to make the necessary investments. After all, economic theory may suggest that “markets” are superior, but it is financial considerations, not economics, that determine whether assets get built.

This conference examined  whether the need to consider the economic and financial issues raised by different policy measures could, or should, have implications for the design of policy instruments required to meet the rapidly changing energy economy. To this end, the conference will bringtogether senior level speakers from energy industries, academia, financial institutions and policy makers from the UK, Europe and the US. The conference will endeavour to shed some light on the decision making processes adopted at senior levels in Government and Industry.

BIEE Academic Conference programme 2010

Any papers and presentations from this conference may be viewed in the downloads section.