Role of Researcher/Academia in making low carbon policy: UK

Abstract

Fukushima accident in Japan triggered the discussion worldwide on the role of science and its relation with policy. Based on their experience of BSE, UK has developed the institutional mechanism to solve this problem for the past couple of decades. This study focuses on the role of Researcher/Academia in making low carbon policy in the UK. UK researchers and universities can enjoy high a relatively high degree of independence of their research from the government due to its stature that guarantees its independence. One of the reasons is that ”the Halden Principle” requires higher research education to be independent from the government in the UK. In addition to this robust institutional support, there was a recent movement for evidence-based policy in the UK, which requires more economic and scientific robustness, therefore role of engineers and social scientists are increasingly important. Social science has not been focused that much, but it will have a greater role in changing people’s behavior with high level of uncertainty. UK businesses have played a leading role to move forward the climate policy such as UKETS as well as low carbon policy. The regular communication and consultation is a crucial basis for making integrated policy, which involves wide range of stakeholders. Involvement of citizens, on the other hand, is rather limited and their role should be considered further as the focus of low carbon policy moves to change of behavior. Climate Change Act 2008 sets out a framework that will put UK on the path to become a low-carbon economy, with clear, legally binding targets to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 60% (later increased to 80%) by 2050, and 26% (later increased to 34%) by 2020 below 1990. These legally binding targets required structural change of the government to implement the necessary policies and measures especially by the integrating climate and energy policy.