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Our report takes the Government’s most recent statement on energy transition, the Clean Growth Strategy (BEIS, 2017), as a starting point and draws on current knowledge from the UK energy demand research community. We consider the Strategy’s goal of accelerating the pace of clean growth, and build on the comprehensive, quantitative analysis by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC, 2018). We agree that major improvements in energy productivity in businesses, transport and homes are crucial to achieving this goal. Our report sets out a broad vision for how this might be achieved, and shows that this requires attention to technical, social and institutional factors that drive energy demand. We argue that a stronger focus on demand will be required to address the greater action implied by a net-zero carbon target (CCC, 2019), and set out recommendations on the changes in policy required to deliver the energy-use related goals of the Clean Growth Strategy.

Key Research Findings:The majority of Local Authorities have ambitions for action on sustainable energy, and 82% of those researched are active to some degreeLocal Authorities were more likely to have an Energy and Carbon Plan than investment in projectsLocal Authority investment in energy was focused on infrastructures for combined heat and power alongside the improvement of energy efficiency in buildingsAcross the UK, Scotland had a higher proportion of leaders in providing low carbon systems –The leading Local Authorities in England were in Yorkshire & Humber, Greater London and the North EastThe scale of Local Authority energy projects in relation to overall energy systems remains limitedLocal Authorities have very limited capacity for strategic energy managemenKey recommendations to enable greater Local Authority engagement are given

This report examines UK Local Authority clean energy plans and investments. Local Authorities (LAs) are recognised across the governments of the UK, and by the UK Committee on Climate Change (2012), as critical to climate protection and clean energy commitments. Local strategies can contribute significantly to energy savings in public, commercial and residential buildings; statutory duties, planning and development powers are important in catalysing cross sector innovation for clean energy systems. Many leading edge LAs have made pledges to achieve 100% clean energy in their area by 2050.There are however, uncertainties about the future structure of local government services, powers and resources, and the local government role in energy systems is uncertain. In this context, LAs are increasingly treating energy provision and demand management as a source of revenues and as an agent oftransformation across the local social, economic and environmental landscape. Some cities and regions are making energy infrastructure and services central to capital investment and creating municipal energy companies to manage new business; others are asking how they can get started. Despite the unknowns, LAs are one of the very few organisations committed to the area for the long term and their democratic status is a route to engaging everyone in decision-making about the necessary shift to clean energy, giving them a stake in benefits as well as costs

This paper reviews academic and grey literature concerning local engagement with energy systems in Europe. Through international comparison, the paper aims to identify factors shaping the form and extent of engagement with energy at local levels in Europe.The paper considers high-level patterns of engagement across European countries by examining the extent to which actors in different countries engage with Europe-wide processes (the Covenant of Mayors and Intelligent Energy Europe). This leads on to discussion of how local energy historically has interacted with broad patterns of central-local government relations. Contemporary issues in European local energy, in a context of “unbundled” energy systems and local governance are then discussed The review supports the set of factors in the LEUKES proposal identified as relevant to shaping patterns of local engagement with energy. Rather than suggesting new factors, or indicating some factors may not be relevant, the review has helped put some detail behind how each factor may operate in European countries.

This report, edited by Edited by Andrew Brown and Mary Robertson, presents research on economic evaluation of systems of infrastructure provision by iBUILD researchers and collaborators in a form that is intended to inform policy makers and stakeholders of all kinds, as well as academics. It has arisen through two factors: firstly, the increasing recognition of the importance of sustainable and resilient infrastructure to economy and society by policy makers, businesses and wider civil society; secondly, the wealth of expertise on the economic evaluation of systems of infrastructure provision across the iBUILD Centre. In this chapter the authors apply ideas about real options value and passive provision to case studies related to the development of heat networks by local authorities in the UK.