Researchers at the Centre for Energy Policy have secured funding from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) to explore how progress towards low-carbon heating can be made. The Delivering a sustainable and equitable heat transition (SEHT) aims to contribute new evidence and analysis on the issue of heat decarbonisation, potentially one of the most complex challenges that needs to be addressed if the UK is to meet ambitious net zero targets by 2050.
The project will explore a range of heat decarbonisation actions and how they will affect lives and livelihoods in the UK, particularly through impacts on prices, jobs and earnings, GDP and the competitiveness of different sectors, regions and supply chains in the wider economy. The project will address the skills and training needs associated with the heat transition. It will also deliver new insights into how strategic public and private investments, alongside existing and new policy instruments, could support an effective and fair transition to low-carbon heating.
SEHT will build on CEP’s longstanding expertise and experience of exploring the economic and societal outcomes of different decarbonisation actions – from industrial decarbonisation to electrification of transport to energy efficiency. Through applying a novel and innovative blend of economic and energy systems modelling and scenario development, the project will strengthen understanding of the economic and societal impacts and consequences, and the associated opportunities, challenges and trade-offs of different actions to decarbonise heat. In turn, this can inform the identification and shaping of feasible and evidence-based policy driven pathways, and provide critical insights and evidence to decision-makers responsible for ensuring the UK’s transition to a net zero economy is prosperous, sustainable and equitable.