Cambridge Judge Business School duo brief UK/EU summit on ‘closely aligned’ energy policies

Two Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) professors have called for measures to more closely align UK and EU policies to address energy transition processes.

The Briefing Note on Climate and Energy Priorities for this week’s UK-EU Summit in London was co-authored by Michael Pollitt, professor of business economics, and David Reiner, professor of technology policy, who are based at CJBS on Trumpington Street.

The paper lists five climate priorities, including full alignment on the EU and UK carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), and to actively seek to recruit more countries from across the wider region to a European-wide organisation with aligned targets for emissions reduction and coordinated carbon markets. The Briefing Note also includes nine energy priorities, including full UK cooperation in the EU market coupling platform for electricity, EUPHEMIA, and exploring the potential for a special visa to encourage EU/UK exchange of skilled labour in energy.

“The UK and the EU are well aligned on the ultimate objectives of energy and climate policy with respect to carbon emissions reductions, the rollout of renewables and other low-carbon technologies, and the need for increasing energy efficiency and energy savings,” the Briefing Note says, but it adds that “there are a substantial number of measures that could be taken that would enhance cooperation and competitiveness, reduce costs and paperwork and encourage investment in the energy transition in the UK and EU.”

Seismic pressure has been applied to all European pressures in the wake of the Covid emergency which started in 2020 along with the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the failure to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and the volatility of Trumpian tariffs as the US breaks apart its allegiance to Europe and woos Middle Eastern petrostates and Russia.

“We live in a world of rising geopolitical tensions involving restriction of international trade in energy, critical minerals and energy equipment, which will inevitably hamper the energy transition needed to meet the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement,” concludes the paper.

“The EU and UK should seek to set an example of how reducing barriers to trade and mutual cooperation can be good for the economy and the environment. The evolving post-Brexit world offers an opportunity for both the EU and the UK to demonstrate how distinct jurisdictions with closely aligned energy and climate targets can work together in ways that the rest of the world can learn from.”

Speaking in the garden of Downing Street, where he welcomed UK and EU businesses on Monday evening (19 May), the Prime Minister insisted the deal was “good for bills, good for jobs, good for borders”.

Sir Keir Starmer also hailed a “mood change” in the relationship with the bloc, adding: “The EU and the UK wanting to work together, all of us prepared to say let yesterday be yesterday, we are looking forward to tomorrow.

“We are not going to litigate old arguments, we are going to go forward in the spirit of what we do together, we do better.”