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Work package facilitating knowledge exchange about the UK-EU electricity trade and European energy-industrial decarbonisation

Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, United Kingdom

This Work Package constitutes the knowledge exchange dimension of a two-year political economy project funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).

It is led by Professor of Energy and Climate Change, Michael Grubb, in collaboration with Research Fellow Yaroslav Melekh, both of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources.

The UCL European Institute is curating opportunities for exchange with UCL colleagues across the disciplines and with as well as with policy professionals and analysts in Brussels, the UK and internationally. 

European energy-industrial decarbonisation in the global context: integration, consistency and strategy

The project looks into the future of the UK-EU energy trade, with particular focus on the electricity sector. It considers investment, inefficiencies and the strategic implications of lesser integration of the UK-EU electricity trade. A forward-looking analysis, it investigates: 

  1. the potential for the deployment of offshore hybrid assets, that is, offshore wind multipurpose interconnectors, so as to meet the UK’s target of 50 GW in the North Sea by 2030,
  2. the impact of EU CBAM on electricity trade, and related issues of guarantees of origin for electricity (i.e. REGOs),
  3. ways forward to couple electricity markets and emission trading systems and review the guarantees of origin for clean energy, therefore, to reduce electricity prices, relative costs of decarbonisation and, ultimately, carbon emissions in both markets, and 
  4. the consistencies of gas demand in the EU with its decarbonisation and net zero targets, and potential carbon lock-ins related to the expansion of gas infrastructure since the start of the global energy crisis. 

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    Activities:  

    • Curation of cross-disciplinary discussions to test, enhance and extend the insights and analysis generated by the INET project (21/06/2024 with colleagues from UCL Political Science).
    • Co-organisation of knowledge exchange meetings and workshops with policy communities across Europe (series of meetings with diplomats, think tank analysts, advocacy professionals, politicians and civil servants in Brussels on 18/06/2024; one or two workshops planned for autumn 2024), 
    • The translation of research insights for non-specialist policy audiences via policy briefs and blogs. 

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    Image: Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, United Kingdom, by Nicholas Doherty on Unsplash.