The political economy of supply-side climate policy in the UK

The UK represents a fascinating case of supply-side climate policies that seek to restrict the production of fossil fuels. Drawing on original interview-based research, we contextualise current moves towards supply-side climate policy by analysing the historical legacy of the coal transition of the 1980s and 1990s, the successful ban on export finance for overseas fossil fuel projects under the previous government and the current UK government’s policy of ending new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. To explain this supply-side climate policy landscape, we develop a political economy analysis that centres the role of the state in mediating the competing claims of capital, labour and civil society: bridging a macro account of the financialised model of capitalism that predominates in the UK and an energy regime where fossil fuel incumbents dominate, with a micro account of the strategies of alliance-building and counter-pressure that resulted in the implementation of supply-side policies in the UK.