New Challenges in Energy Security ― The Uk in a Multipolar World

We are faced with the twin urgent challenges of delivering a low carbon and secure energy system. The last few years have seen Britain moving from being a net exporter to a net importer of energy. The threat of climate change has led to the slow but inexorable inclusion of environmental concerns in mainstream energy policy. Against this backdrop, economic and political power around the globe has altered, creating a complex, multipolar world. Rising concerns about the long term availability and price of oil, gas and uranium only add to the challenges facing Britain. This timely volume brings together key researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, including energy policy, international relations and supply chains, to explore the practical policy options in addressing energy security in Britain.

Catherine Mitchell leads the Energy Policy Group at the University of Exeter, UK. She works on the requirements of a sustainable energy transition; including broad energy policy issues; domestic and international energy and climate change policy; institutions (including regulation); infrastructure; economics; innovation and planning. She has worked on energy issues since the early 1980's, initially as a journalist writing about oil and gas issues and then as an academic at the Universities of Warwick and Sussex in the UK and Berkeley, California in the USA.

Jim Watson is Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre. He has over 15 years' research experience on energy, climate change and innovation policy issues. He frequently advises government departments and has been a Specialist Adviser with two House of Commons select committees. He was Chair of the British Institute for Energy Economics in 2011, and is a member of DECC and Defra's social science expert panel.

Jessica Whiting is Associate Research Fellow for the Energy Security in a Multipolar World research cluster and a post-graduate researcher. Her interests include interdisciplinary approaches to the low carbon transition, the role of local authorities in the energy system and energy resilience. Prior to returning to academia she developed climate change strategies in the public sector.