UK Presses Ahead With Energy Sector Reforms, Establishes New Offshore Body
The British government is trying to increase the tone of its voice in the energy debate, firmly committing to new measures to decrease inefficiencies both nationally and internationally.
On Wednesday, it announced a short term funding of £15 million over five years to establish a new regulatory body for the UK’s offshore operations.
‘The Government today announced it would contribute short term funding of £15 million over five years to help kickstart the establishment of a new arm’s length regulatory body in the official response to Sir Ian Wood’s review into improving efficiencies in the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry,’ reads a note released by the Department of Energy & Climate Change.
With reports indicating that the country could increase its reliance on imports up to 91% by 2035, British authorities are logically under pressure to find ways to increase efficiency and promote indigenous production.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in a short amount of time… This pace shows how determined we are to maximise the future potential of the UK’s offshore oil and gas industries which currently employ 450,000 people in the UK. As our Carbon Plan shows, the UK will need oil and gas in the decades ahead as we decarbonise, so it makes economic and energy security sense to produce that domestically,” Secretary of State Ed Davey commented on Wednesday.
After the initial contribution of the state, the new authority will be 100% funded by the industry.
CAP AND TRADE SYSTEM
Meanwhile, the British government called for major reforms also at the continental level, asking the European Union to improve the emissions ‘cap and trade’ system put in place in 2005.
“The UK is asking for bold and comprehensive reforms to restore the ability of the EU’s Emission Trading System to drive cost-effective emission reduction and low carbon investment,” Davey commented in a separate note.
According to the British government, the malfunction of the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) has to do with ‘insufficiently ambitious target for 2020,’ which helped depressing the prices for allowances, along with the economic downturn.
“A glut of emission allowances on the carbon market has thrown the system off course. This is delaying the low-carbon investment that countries need now to meet long term targets, and thwarting the economic growth that these investments will bring,” Davey commented.