Welfare, Employment and Energy Demand: Examining Tensions and Opportunities in the Delivery of Demand Reduction

减少能源需求对英国来说是一个关键问题，因为它需要实现几个国家政策目标，包括能源安全、碳排放目标和更广泛的可持续发展目标。实现这一目标所涉及的挑战是巨大的，总的来说，人们强烈认识到，单靠技术变革是无法实现这一目标的，而是需要改变我们将能源作为日常生活一部分的使用方式。能源的用途在一定程度上反映了政府如何在许多不同的政策领域塑造目标和投资。因此，非能源政策，例如与经济发展、健康和安全或消费者选择有关的政策，可能对能源需求产生重大影响。这个拟议的项目面临的挑战是，除了那些专门关注能源的政策之外，还需要确定政策的意外能源需求后果。该研究使用福利和就业政策领域作为案例，因为它包括的目标在增加能源需求(例如经济增长)、再现特定的需求时间模式(例如通过就业政策)和减少需求(例如跨福利政策，例如住房)方面具有影响。该项目旨在提供以下方面的见解：1)非能源政策在能源使用和需求构成中的作用；2)使用非能源政策改变能源需求时出现的紧张和机会。研究将解决以下关键问题：1)福利和就业政策如何有助于构建与能源使用有关的需求、权利和预期？2)这一领域的哪些政策目标和相关战略与减少能源使用的目标相冲突，以及存在哪些协同作用的机会？3)政策制定者如何协调相互冲突的政策目标，并以与减少能源需求相称的方式实现福利和就业目标？这些研究问题将通过一个分成三个相互关联的工作包的实证研究计划来解决。工作包1侧重于审查和绘制当前的福利和就业政策，以及相关文献、实证研究和辅助数据，以促进对能源需求影响的评估。工作包2在审查工作的基础上，对福利和就业领域的政策制定者和其他利益攸关方进行了深入的定性访谈。工作包3包括与能源、福利和就业领域(国家和区域)、政策执行、非政府组织和其他有关机构的工作人员举行的讨论论坛讲习班。该项目将产生一个丰富的新颖数据集，用于询问有关非能源政策在减少能源需求方面的作用的重要问题。从这一案例研究中吸取的经验教训将为减少能源需求的政策制定和创新进程提供参考。

Energy demand reduction is a key issue for the UK as it is necessary to meet several national policy goals, including energy security, carbon emissions targets and wider sustainability aims. The challenges involved in achieving this are significant and in general there is strong recognition that it will not be achieved through technological change alone but will require changes in the way that we use energy as part of daily life. What energy is used for is in part a reflection of how governments shape objectives and investments across many different policy domains. It follows that non-energy policies, for example, relating to economic development, health and safety or consumer choice, can have major implications for energy demand. This proposed project takes on the challenge of identifying the unintended energy demand consequences of policies beyond those focused specifically on energy. The research uses the policy area of welfare and employment as a case because it includes goals that have implications in terms of increasing energy demand (e.g. economic growth), reproducing particular temporal patterns of demand (e.g. through employment policies), and reducing demand (e.g. across welfare policies, such as for housing). The project aims to offer insight into; 1) the role of non-energy policy in the constitution of energy use and needs; and 2) the tensions and opportunities that arise in using non-energy policy to transform energy demand.The research will address the following key questions: 1) How do welfare and employment policies contribute to the construction of needs, entitlements, and expectations, with regard to energy usage? 2) Which policy goals and associated strategies in this area conflict with aims for reducing energy usage and what opportunities exist for synergy?3) How can policy-makers reconcile conflicting policy objectives and achieve welfare and employment goals in ways commensurate with reducing energy demand?These research questions will be addressed through a programme of empirical research split across three interlinked work packages. Work package 1 focuses on reviewing and mapping current welfare and employment policies, along with relevant literature, empirical research and secondary data to facilitate assessment of energy demand impacts. Work package 2 builds on the review work by undertaking in-depth qualitative interviews with policy-makers and other stakeholders in the areas of welfare and employment. Work package 3 involves deliberative forum workshops with people working in both energy and welfare and employment across policy (national and regional), policy delivery, NGO's and other relevant institutions. The project will generate a rich novel data set that will be used to interrogate important questions about the role of non-energy policy in energy demand reduction. The lessons learned from this case study will inform processes of policy-making and innovation for energy demand reduction.