This thesis assesses the future security of the UK electricity system in a low-carbon context. Electricity provision is a crucial and ubiquitous component of industrialised societies, and over the past couple of decades a number of fundamental changes to electricity systems have meant that the security of this provision has taken a central place on the policy agendas of the UK and many other industrialised nations. Alongside this, emerging normative, legal and political imperatives to mitigate climate change mean that energy systems will need to undergo a fundamental transition. The overarching aim of this thesis is to assess the future security of the UK electricity system in a low-carbon context, in order to identify the main risks, trade-offs and synergies which may emerge between different objectives in a transition to a low-carbon electricity system. To do this, this thesis develops a set of indicators for assessing the electricity security of low-carbon transition pathways, building on assessment frameworks from the existing literature and utilising a range of both quantitative and qualitative indicators. The indicator set is used to assess the security of three pathways for the UK electricity system, each of which aims to meet the UK's 2050 greenhouse gas reduction target. The indicators are then used as the basis for interview discussions with 25 experts from the UK energy sector, in order to explore the diversity of perspectives in the UK energy community. Finally, the experts' perspectives are used as multiple ‘lenses' through which to view the results of the security assessment of the three pathways. This thesis makes a contribution to knowledge and understanding in three ways. Firstly, it makes a methodological contribution by proposing and testing a set of indicators to measure the security of electricity systems in long-term scenarios of national energy transitions. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach and utilises both quantitative and qualitative indicators without aggregation in order to identify synergies and trade-offs. Secondly, this thesis makes an empirical contribution by applying this set of indicators in a novel way to assess the security of a set of low-carbon transition pathways for the UK electricity system: this is the first time that such a comprehensive security dashboard has been used to assess a set of future electricity system scenarios. By including reliability and cost parameters alongside a range of other important aspects of energy security such as diversity, trade and acceptability, this thesis extends the empirical work of existing frameworks to explore the potential implications of a low-carbon transition on electricity system reliability and costs, and the potential trade-offs between various objectives. Thirdly, this thesis makes a further empirical contribution by identifying the diversity of perspectives amongst UK energy experts; this is a novel contribution to the energy security literature, which contains few empirical studies on experts' perspectives on energy security, and no previously-existing work of this kind in the UK context. Finally, this thesis analyses the impacts of these perspectives on the results of the security assessment, thus providing the first study of this kind to actively incorporate multiple perspectives on energy security into an indicator assessment. The thesis finds that the three low-carbon pathways tested against the indicator framework all demonstrate a reduction in flexible, responsive supply capacity compared to the 2010 baseline, which could reduce the ability of the system to respond to unexpected perturbations in the supply/demand balance. The results show that demand reduction may be highly beneficial and results in co-benefits across multiple security dimensions (although this thesis has not conducted detailed investigation of the costs and risks of demand reduction, and therefore this issue needs to be analysed further in future research). Increasing the penetration of renewable electricity generation is shown to increase the diversity of the generation mix, and to have a positive impact on greenhouse gas emission reduction and resource depletion; however, it could lead to a reduction in system balancing capability, and does not necessarily minimise dependence on fuel imports. The decentralised transition pathway is shown to have the fewest ‘red flags' of security risk in the longer-term; this finding is an interesting addition to the academic and policy literature which has debated the potential security benefits of a decentralised electricity system for the UK. However, this thesis also highlights that there are many areas of uncertainty and potential security risk in a transition to a decentralised electricity system, which may experience some aspects of heightened security risk in the medium-term.

Thèse confidentielle jusqu'au 14/12/2019. Notre thèse s’intéresse à l’européanisation du système énergétique européen. Par système énergétique européen, nous comprenons un ensemble de 28 politiques nationales, construites dans un cadre normatif européen régi par le principe de primauté du droit communautaire. Dans ce système énergétique, nous nous sommes focalisés sur la question de la sécurité énergétique. Notre recherche a démontré que l’européanisation par la norme fonctionne. / Confidential PhD thesis. Our research focused on the Europeanisation of the European energy system. By European energy system, we understand a set of 28 national policies, built in a European normative framework governed by the principle of primacy of EU law. In this energy system, we focused on the issue of energy security. Our research has shown that normative Europeanisation works.

In the late-1960s, a handful of young, countercultural Americans, inspired by E. F. Schumacher’s concept of “intermediate technology,” founded the Appropriate Technology, or AT, movement in the United States. Although Schumacher’s project focused upon the ways in which technologically sustainable methods could gently and prudently support the modernization of underdeveloped nations, American proponents of AT recognized, in this approach, an opportunity to mitigate the overdevelopment of the Western world. By advocating, promoting, and effecting sustainable techniques from a grassroots to governmental level, practitioners of appropriate technology sought to prevent the further environmental, economic, and social degradation of American communities. The mission of AT was synergistic: by implementing “appropriate” methods of energy production, building design, transportation, education, health care, and communications, appropriate technologists attempted to create comprehensive change. This disciplinary and conceptual inclusivity encouraged the organization of a diversity of AT proponents into cooperative, multifunctional groups, which acted both from within governmental bureaucracy, in the case of California’s Office of Appropriate Technology and the National Center for Appropriate Technology, and outside the Establishment, in the case of the New Alchemy Institute and RAIN collective. My dissertation centers upon these four groups – in particular, their realized projects, community outreach programs, and numerous publications – emphasizing the ways in which the initial philosophy, politics, and focus of AT evolved as the movement transitioned from a countercultural pipe dream to a widely supported solution for America’s energy problems in the wake of the 1973 Oil Crisis.

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Bibliography: leaves 240-248.

Nowadays the role that energy plays in international affairs is not only in the military’s role, we can see how energy is a strong part of diplomatic strategies for many countries, the result of economic and energy security depends on energy prosperity, thus the importance of energy has been growing rapidly. Since the 1970’s, energy as such has become then most important part of national economies, social and political problems, largely determining the different development processes, global and regionally, and at the same time affecting national security and political stability. The importance of energy lies on the need of energy supply and high prices; interest for this topic can be linked to the terrorism threat, political instability in some countries that export energy for example the nationalist ideology raising in some countries that interrupt drastically the continues flow of energy exports, geopolitical problems, or sharp increase of hydrocarbon consumptions. There are many areas where the cooperation between China and Bolivia is working, and in the energy area we can see the interest of China and the interest of Bolivia in working together to develop this area. Since 2006, China has been increasing the ties with the Bolivian government, approaching to the National interests of the current Bolivian government on developing energy and industrializing the natural resources that Bolivia possesses. On the other hand China has been facing a high rate of economic growth making it able to cooperate with any nation or multiple nations at the same time in many fields. Moreover, energy is a topic inside the Chinese foreign policy toward South America as its rapid economic growth directly influences the consumption of energy. Nowadays China’s national market demand for fuel and energy has surpassed the national productions making China a big consumer and international hunter for energy resources in order to continue with the national economic growth of China in the next years. Every country pursues national security, which includes a complex perception of not only military capabilities or development tools, but also economic growth. The force that stimulates economic development of the state appears nowadays to be the energy resources; energy security greatly enhances national security of one state, thus energy cooperation becomes an issue of high importance in a globalized world, what are the contact points, requirements and implications of the energy cooperation between Bolivia and China? This issue will be explored in this thesis.

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by Richard W. Brown, John E. Buchanan, Jeremy F. Shapiro. / "December 1984." On cover: International Energy Studies Program. On cover: Center for Energy Policy Research. / Bibliography: p. 33. / Department of Energy Contract EX-76-A-01-2295 Task Order 67

Die „Gasabhängigkeit“ Europas von Russland ist ein Scheinproblem. Es gibt gegenseitige Abhängigkeiten, die auch Russlands Handeln begrenzen. Für den Russlandexperten Roland Götz wird das politisch motivierte Vorantreiben einer von Russland unabhängigen Energieversorgung nicht nur erfolglos bleiben, sondern auch den Aufbau eines partnerschaftlichen Verhältnisses zwischen Europa und Russland erschweren.

Die verheerenden Erdbeben im März dieses Jahres erschütterten nicht nur Japan, sie erschütterten die Welt. Das Reaktorunglück von Fukushima weckte düstere Erinnerungen an Tschernobyl. Wie geht das asiatische Land mit der Katastrophe um? Das Thema zeigt deutlich, dass die Krise noch lange nicht Überwunden ist. Weitere Themen: Europa macht die Eurokrise zu schaffen. Werner Weidenfeld kritisiert die Verengung und plädiert für ein politisches Projekt Europa. Berlins Große Politik im Fall Libyen analysiert Gunther Hellmann. Zudem ein aktuelles Interview mit dem Generaldelegierten Palästinas in Deutschland: Palästinas Antrag auf UN-Vollmitgliedschaft im September 2011 – Lösung des Knotens oder Verschärfung der Auseinandersetzung?