Depuis une dizaine d’années, l’économie mondiale se caractérise par trois tendances lourdes au plan énergétique : (1) la consommation d’énergie, qui s’était ralentie à la suite des deux chocs pétroliers, croît de plus en plus vite essentiellement en raison du développement très rapide de la Chine ; (2) l’effet de serre est en constante augmentation et le réchauffement climatique menace la survie de la planète ; et (3) la sécurité des approvisionnements est de moins en moins assurée en raison de l’exacerbation des nationalismes chez la plupart des pays producteurs de pétrole. Lorsque le New Labour est arrivé au pouvoir en 1997, le Royaume-Uni était indépendant pour la production d’hydrocarbures. Sept ans plus tard (2004), il est devenu importateur net de gaz et, en 2006, il est devenu importateur net de pétrole. La plupart de ses installations sont obsolètes. Le Royaume-Uni a donc un triple défi à relever : le défi environnemental, la sécurisation de ses approvisionnements en énergie et la modernisation de ses installations énergétiques, qui nécessiteront des investissements importants. Ces défis sont communs à tous les pays européens. En juin 2007, le Royaume-Uni a présenté son livre blanc sur l’énergie qui présente les principaux points de sa politique énergétique.La thèse se propose d’étudier l’évolution de la politique énergétique du Royaume-Uni depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Deux questions paraissent centrales à cette étude. Quels sont les grandes évolutions de la politique énergétique britannique ? Quels sont les points de convergence et de divergence entre la stratégie énergétique du Royaume-Uni avec la politique énergétique de l’Union européenne, dont la création du grand marché de l’énergie n’est qu’un des aspects ? / Over a decade, world economy has been characterised by three intense tendencies in the field of energy: (1) the energy consumption, which had been slowed down following the two oil crises, has tremendously increased, essentially due to the fast development of China; (2) the constantly-Aggravating greenhouse effect and the global warming are threatening the survival of our planet; (3) the energy supply security has been less and less guaranteed as a result of the exacerbation of the nationalism in many oil-Producing countries. When New Labour came to power in 1997, the UK was independent in its hydrocarbon production. Seven years later in 2004, it became a net gas importer, and in 2006, a net oil importer. Most of its energy infrastructures are nowadays obsolete. The UK is thus facing a triple challenge: environment, energy supply security and energy infrastructures modernisation, which all engulf great investments. These challenges are common to all European countries. In June 2007, the government published an important Energy White Paper on the challenges that the British energy policy was facing.The doctoral thesis studies the evolution of the UK energy policy since the end of the Second World War. Two questions are essential to this study. What are the great evolutions of the UK energy policy? What are the convergences and divergences between the UK energy policy and the European energy policy, of which the creation of the Common Market is only one of the aspects?

In the UK, the debate surrounding energy production lies at the forefront of the political agenda, with growing emphasis on achieving an increasingly sustainable energy mix into the future. The nuclear option is especially debatable - issues such as waste management and decommissioning receive much attention. In addition, the many stakeholders interested in nuclear power display very divergent views on its sustainability. Since the turn of the century, nuclear power has received much attention globally, with many nations’ governments taking consideration of the potential benefits of new nuclear adoption. Conversely, the Fukushima nuclear disaster has led to new nuclear resistance in other nations, such as Germany, where plans have been made to stop nuclear power generation completely. This research aims to help inform the debate on nuclear power and the future UK electricity mix. A multi-criteria decision support framework (developed by the SPRIng Project) has been used for these purposes, taking into account technical, economic, environmental and social criteria.The methodology used in this work has involved: stakeholder consultation; use of future electricity scenarios; sustainability assessment of current and future electricity options (Pressurised Water Reactor, European Pressurised Reactor, European Fast Rector, coal, gas, solar and wind power, and coal carbon capture and storage [CCS] power); assessment of future electricity scenarios based on both sustainability impacts and stakeholder (expert and public) preferences for the sustainability indicators and electricity technologies. The sustainability assessment of future nuclear power options and coal CCS power have been carried out here for the first time in a UK-specific context.Based on the public and expert opinions on the importance of different sustainability indicators, results of the scenario analysis suggest that the scenario with a high penetration of low-carbon technologies (nuclear [60%] and offshore wind power [40%]) is the most sustainable. For the sample considered in this study, this finding is not sensitive to different stakeholder and public opinions on the importance of the sustainability indicators. However, when the stakeholder preferences for individual technologies are considered, scenarios with high penetration of renewables (26-40% solar and 20-48% wind) become the preferred options. This is due to the favourable stakeholder opinion on solar and wind power. In that case, the scenario with high penetration of nuclear is never the preferred option due to the low to moderate stakeholder preference for nuclear power.Therefore, the results from this research suggest that the ‘sustainability’ of different electricity options and scenarios is highly dependent on stakeholder preferences and priorities. Thus, for successful future deployment of these options and implementation of energy policy measures, transparency of information on the impacts of electricity options is key in ensuring that stakeholder opinions are founded in the actual rather than the perceived impacts of these options.