Re-scaling governance for decarbonisation: co-ordinating decentralised energy systems

To avoid the worst impacts of climate change a rapid shift to clean, renewable energy systems is required. The energy system in the UK is undergoing significant change towards a more distributed, decentralised and flexible system across electricity, heat and transport. The direction of travel is challenging for the current top down, centralised system of operation and governance and these shifts are leading to recognition that more localised energy system resources, actors and institutions are becoming increasingly important. The Government's Clean Growth Strategy explicitly recognises that local areas 'are best placed to drive emission reductions through their unique position of managing policy on land, buildings, water, waste and transport' (HM Government, 2017, p. 118) and there is increasing focus on the role of local coordination in whole system, integrated approaches to decarbonisation (Tingey, Webb and Hawkey, 2017; Energy Systems Catapult, 2018b). At the same time some local authorities are showing clear leadership, as evidenced by recent declarations of 'climate emergencies' (see https://climateemergency.uk/), ambitious carbon neutrality targets, and clean energy pledges.

However, although there is extensive local experimentation in low carbon energy, governance structures to shape and co-ordinate local energy systems are limited (Cowell, Ellis and Strachan, 2017). The role of distribution network operators is set to transform as they become more active managers of networks and enablers of flexibility, local authority action on energy varies greatly across the country, and both devolution deals and Local Enterprise Partnerships are increasingly focussing on energy. Recognising these multiple developments, and the increasing strategic focus on local energy, this fellowship seeks to explore how the role of local actors in energy systems is changing, the extent to which current governance, policy and regulatory arrangements support action by the most appropriate actors at the right scale, and how action between local, regional and national governments should be best coordinated.

Three academic publications will be produced as part of this fellowship which focus on developing a fuller understanding of the processes by which institutional change is enabled and constrained by actors and discourses at different scales. Specifically debates on energy system change and local governance rescaling will be integrated to explore how roles, relationships and institutions can change to support a decarbonised, decentralised energy system. Ultimately the fellowship seeks to further debates of the urban politics and practices of energy system change with the objective of supporting more rapid and focussed practice change at this scale. The production of these papers, together with an expert roundtable event, will inform the development of a policy briefing which seeks to synthesise state of the art understanding of urban energy transitions and provide policy relevant recommendations on how sub-national governance relationships need to develop. This briefing will be disseminated through presentations and meetings with national and local policymakers.