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UK > Energy & environment > Consultancy Capability - Energy and environment

 

Meeting the challenge of climate change:

• energy and environment issues are a key strategic priority for UK government’s policy making as it seeks to:
  
  ...meet its commitment to hit the ambitious legally binding target of at least 80% reduction in UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
  
  ...and ultimately move to a green economy by the end of the 21st century

• the transition to a low carbon future will not be easy as it will require radical changes how businesses operate and change the shape of growth and jobs we can expect in the future
• more urgently, official figures suggest that the UK needs £200bn of investment to 2020 to secure low-carbon energy
  
  ...but this will need reform of the energy market, as signalled by the July 2011 Electricity Market Reform White Paper, and action to attract additional private sector funding
  
  ...the announcement in the March 2011 Budget that, the Green Investment Bank will open for business in 2012/13 with an initial capitalisation of £3bn, and be able to borrow from 2015/16, is an encouraging move aimed at kick-starting and up scaling investment in low carbon energy projects
  
  ...and a stronger and more stable carbon price than so far provided by the EU Emissions Trading System is a vital signal that energy investors need to put their money in green energy technologies

With UK energy scene becoming ever more complex, CE is well placed to meet the clear need for rigorous, independent, evidence-based quantitative analysis to assess the impact of the policy measures coming from UK government or Brussels on energy users and energy suppliers.

 

Our expertise

Our UK energy and environment work focuses on the application of energy-environment-economy (E3) modelling and statistical data analysis techniques to support the needs of clients in business and government. Specifically we offer:

 

• an impressive track record of high quality, cutting-edge and successful E3 modelling and policy analysis undertaken for a wide range of government departments, public sector agencies and private sector companies.
• MDM-E3, our model of the UK economy, is uniquely placed to integrate E3 indicators with substantial disaggregation: 41 industry sectors, 11 fuels, 25 energy users and 14 types of air emissions
• a commercial forecasting service with up-to date projections for at least 10 years ahead for UK energy consumption and energy-related emissions on a highly disaggregated basis regularly published in the UK Energy and the Environment report that also informs any subsequent modelling work for clients
• supporting the industry with demand forecasting 
• expertise in analysis of the economic aspects of CO2 mitigation policies
• the ability to set, in the broader economic and industrial context, the impact of energy-environment policies and measures on industry sectors, energy users and on environmental emissions
• expertise in rigorous formal modelling and other quantitative techniques supported by ‘softer’ skills of assessing and evaluating qualitative information
• a specialist team of experienced energy economists with extensive experience in E3 and econometric modelling, statistical data analysis, qualitative survey design and analysis and up-date knowledge of developments in the UK energy sector
• expertise in jargon-free briefing of top management and professional staff in government and business on the results of our project work

Our partners include

We work with a number of multidisciplinary consultancies and research institutes, typically, but not exclusively, providing a model-based input including:

Our clients include

• Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) 
• The Climate Change Committee (CCC) 
• The Scottish Government 
• RenewableUK 
• Energy and Utility Skills 
• RWE npower 
• Corona Energy 
• Friends of the Earth

 

Examples of our recent projects

• Corona Energy: This project provided forecasts of gas and electricity demand to inform Corona Energy’s strategic planning for its business of supplying energy to British companies and public customers. CE’s role was to advise on the likely evolution of gas and electricity demand, disaggregated by energy user, over the next five years and to set in the wider context of UK energy developments. The forecasts were developed using CE’s MDM-E3 model which is used to underpin the projections published in our UK Energy and the Environment report.
• The CCC: In this study CE produced new projections for the CCC of CO2 emissions for Scottish sectors not covered by the EU ETS under a range of alternative assumptions about future fossil fuel prices, economic growth and population. This involved the updating the Scenario Tool for Emissions Projections for Scotland (STEPS) to incorporate more recent outturn data and assumptions. We developed the STEPS model in a previous study for the CCC to assist in formulating advice to the Scottish Government on the appropriate level of CO2 emissions reductions over the period to 2030.
  
• DECC: In this study, with partners Entec and Climate Strategies, we identified the sectors most likely to be vulnerable to carbon leakage in Europe as a result of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). CE led the analysis that determined the degree of leakage for selected sectors under a number of forward-looking scenarios and associated stylised assumptions reflecting the commitments of the signatories to the December 2009 Copenhagen Accord. The project was aimed at informing the UK government’s position vis-à-vis the European Commission’s proposed special treatment of sectors deemed to be vulnerable to carbon leakage in Phase III of the EU ETS due to begin in 2013.

The application of MDM-E3 is the heart of much of our work in the energy-environment field.