Take time to fit the right infrastructure

Setting up the right framework for the UK’s energy market is more important than rushing any old measures through, according to Professor Dieter Helm. The Professor of Energy Policy at […]

Setting up the right framework for the UK’s energy market is more important than rushing any old measures through, according to Professor Dieter Helm.

The Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford told ELN: “It’s only nine years until we have to meet the Renewables Directive from Europe and 19 years before we have to decarbonise the entirety of the energy industry. If that’s what governments want to do, this is desperately urgent.

“Of course there is another alternative and that’s to recognise we may not meet those objectives and take time and do it properly. More haste and less speed is probably the answer.”

Speaking on Tuesday from the Marketforce Future of Utilities Conference in Central London, Professor Helm also reflected on the role of the Green Investment Bank.

He said it needed to be kept separate from politics: “The job of DECC is to do policy and the delivery of policy. Banking and so on is best done at arm’s length where there’s no possibility of any perception of political interference in particular decisions.”

He added: “The EMR’s taken ten years of review after review after review to come to the conclusion that the current market isn’t fit for purpose, which is pretty obvious.”

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