Policy & Socio-Economics

Last year the Prime Minister set out his 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution laying the foundations for a green economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 with the UK at the forefront of the growing global green economy.

This strategy builds on that approach to keep us on track for UK carbon budgets our 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution and net zero by 2050. It includes:

• our decarbonisation pathways to net zero by 2050 including illustrative scenarios 
• policies and proposals to reduce emissions for each sector 
• cross-cutting action to support the transition. 

The government response to the 2021 Committee on Climate Change (CCC) progress report to Parliament in reducing UK emissions is published alongside this strategy. It will set out our progress over the last 12 months and addresses the latest CCC recommendations. The Net Zero Strategy will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the UK’s second Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategy under the Paris Agreement.

This edition of the Global Gas Report covers two very turbulent years in the global gas industry and the wider global energy markets. The Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns with a brief period of excess supply and low prices gave way to tight energy markets extreme price volatility and a compounding geopolitical challenge to energy security. At the time of writing the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has been affecting the flows of gas and has put Europe on a quest to diversify its energy and gas supply that is now opening a new paradigm in the energy industry. This report comes at a time when the situation for global commodity and gas markets is in a state of rapid change and the strategic path forwards for the gas industry and energy policy-makers is continually developing. One thing is clear this is a critical and decisive moment for the gas industry. How it navigates the way through this crisis and charts a path forward will shape its long-term success and the role that it will play in the energy transition and beyond. This is the moment for the gas industry to demonstrate that gas can deliver a sustainable and secure energy future for all and that natural gas and a portfolio of decarbonized low- and zero-carbon gases are key to an achievable energy transition. This year’s report assesses key gas market trends from 2020 and 2021 including Covid-19 outcomes tightness of supply price volatility investments and the upward reversal in the global emissions trend. It then turns to the main topic on the global energy agenda – security – and considers key variables impacting it from industry and policy perspectives as well as considering possible paths to reinforce it. Finally the report looks at the main decarbonization pathways for gas supply as they progressively develop to make gas itself a low or zero-carbon fuel for the future. This report seeks to deliver insights about the global gas sector and to inform its stakeholders partners and importantly global decision-makers about the state of play today and possibilities for the future. It concludes with key insights on how sustainability security and competitiveness can help to deliver a sustainable future in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Agenda.

Achieving Net Zero Electricity Sectors in G7 Members is a new report by the International Energy Agency that provides a roadmap to driving down CO2 emissions from electricity generation to net zero by 2035 building on analysis in Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.

The new report was requested by the United Kingdom under its G7 Presidency and followed the G7 leaders’ commitment in June 2021 to reach “an overwhelmingly decarbonised” power system in the 2030s and net zero emissions across their economies no later than 2050. It is designed to inform policy makers industry investors and citizens in advance of the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that begins at the end of October 2021.

Starting from recent progress and the current state of play of electricity in the G7 the report analyses the steps needed to achieve net zero emissions from electricity and considers the wider implications for energy security employment and affordability. It identifies key milestones emerging challenges and opportunities for innovation.

The report also underscores how G7 members can foster innovation through international collaboration and as first movers lower the cost of technologies for other countries while maintaining electricity security and placing people at the centre of clean energy transitions.

Link to their website

Since the UK’s Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions target was set in 2019 organisations across the energy systems community have released pathways on how we might get there – which end-use technologies are deployed across each sector of demand how our fossil fuel-based energy supply would be transferred to low carbon vectors and to what extent society must change the way it demands energy services. This paper presents a comparative analysis between seven published Net Zero pathways for the UK energy system collected from Energy Systems Catapult National Grid ESO Centre for Alternative Technology and the Climate Change Committee. The key findings reported are that (i) pathways that rely on less stringent behavioural changes require more ambitious technology development (and vice versa); (ii) electricity generation will increase by 51-160% to facilitate large-scale fuel-switching in heating and transport the vast majority of which is likely to be generated from variable renewable sources; (iii) hydrogen is an important energy vector in meeting Net Zero for all pathways providing 100-591 TWh annually by 2050 though the growth in demand is heavily dependent on the extent to which it is used in supplying heating and transport demand. This paper also presents a re-visited analysis of the potential renewable electricity generation resource in the UK. It was found that the resource for renewable electricity generation outstrips the UK’s projected 2050 electricity demand by a factor 12-20 depending on the pathway. As made clear in all seven pathways large-scale deployment of flexibility and storage is required to match this abundant resource to our energy demand.

This work studies the development of a sustainable hydrogen infrastructure that supports the transition towards a low-carbon transport system in the United Kingdom (UK). The future hydrogen demand is forecasted over time using a logistic diffusion model which reaches 50% of the market share by 2070. The problem is solved using an extension of SHIPMod an optimisation-based framework that consists of a multi-period spatially-explicit mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation. The optimisation model combines the infrastructure elements required throughout the different phases of the transition namely economies of scale road and pipeline transportation modes and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in order to minimise the present value of the total infrastructure cost using a discounted cash-flow analysis. The results show that the combination of all these elements in the mathematical formulation renders optimal solutions with the gradual infrastructure investments over time required for the transition towards a sustainable hydrogen economy.

This report provides you with the information you need if you have plans to interact with or connect to our gas networks. Our vision is to set the standards that all of our customers love and others aspire to. This means that our long-term plans are shaped by our customers and stakeholders. This annual publication is an important opportunity to share our latest long-term plan and our strategic thinking and seek feedback so we can continue to adapt our activities going forward. We want to make it as easy and efficient as possible for you to interact with us.

​Cadent Long Term Development Plan 2019​​​

As transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources comes on the agenda for a range of energy systems energy modelling tools can provide useful insights. If large parts of the energy system turns out to be based on variable renewables an accurate representation of their short-term variability in such models is crucial. In this paper we have developed a stochastic long-term energy model and applied it to an isolated Arctic settlement as a challenging and realistic test case. Our findings suggest that the stochastic modelling approach is critical in particular for studies of remote Arctic energy systems. Furthermore the results from a case study of the Norwegian settlement of Longyearbyen suggest that transitioning to a system based on renewable energy sources is feasible. We recommend that a solution based mainly on renewable power generation but also including energy storage import of hydrogen and adequate back-up capacity is taken into consideration when planning the future of remote Arctic settlements.

On 20 December 2021 the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched a Call for Evidence (CfE) on enabling or requiring hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment. The aim was to gather evidence from a broad range of UK manufacturers industrial end-users supply chain participants and other experts to enable the development of proposals. The CfE was open for 12 weeks closing on 14 March 2022. The CfE followed the publication of the UK Hydrogen Strategy on 17 August 2021. In the Strategy government committed to run a CfE on hydrogen-ready industrial equipment by theend of 2022. The published CfE focussed on industrial boilers due to their widespread use and because BEIS analysis indicates a significant proportion of the demand for hydrogen in industry will come from this equipment category. Furthermore the technology required for hydrogen boilers is relatively advanced and more standardised than for other types of industrial<br/>equipment. For these reasons industrial boiler equipment presents a good test case for hydrogen-ready industrial equipment more broadly.<br/>The CfE contained the following three sections:<br/>• The opportunity for hydrogen-ready industrial boilers<br/>• The role for government to support hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment<br/>• The role of the supply chain and economic opportunities for the UK<br/>Respondents were asked to support their answers with evidence relating to their business product or sector published literature studies or to their broader expertise. To raise awareness of the CfE BEIS officials held two online webinars on 1 February 2022 and 3 February 2022. These were open to boiler manufacturers industrial end-users supply chain participants trade associations professional bodies and any other person(s) with an interest in the area.<br/>To build on evidence gathered through the CfE BEIS commissioned an independent study from Arup and Kiwa Gastec to further examine whether government should enable or require hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment. This study investigated the following topics:<br/>• definitions of hydrogen-readiness for industrial boilers<br/>• comparisons of the cost and resource requirement to install and convert hydrogen-ready industrial boiler equipment<br/>• industrial boiler supply chain capacity for conversion to hydrogen<br/>• estimates of the UK industrial boiler population<br/>The final report for this study has been published alongside the government response to the call for evidence. The conclusions and recommendations of that report do not necessarily represent the view of BEIS.

Hydrogen (H2) is an essential vector for freeing our societies from fossil fuels and effectively initiating the energy transition. Offering high energy density hydrogen can be used for mobile stationary or industrial applications of all sizes. This perspective on the crucial role of hydrogen is shared by a growing number of countries worldwide (e.g. China Germany Japan Republic of Korea Australia and United States) which are publishing ambitious roadmaps for the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies supported by substantial financial efforts.

Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier especially for transportation owing to its unique physical and chemical properties. Moreover the combustion of hydrogen gas generates only pure water; thus its wide utilization can positively affect human society to achieve global net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. This review summarizes the characteristics of the primary hydrogen carriers such as water methane methanol ammonia and formic acid and their corresponding hydrogen production methods. Additionally state-of-the-art studies and hydrogen energy applications in recent years are also included in this review. In addition in the conclusion section we summarize the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen carriers and hydrogen production techniques and suggest the challenging tasks for future research.