The Problem of the UK Energy Security Before the Referendum on Brexit

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of ensuring the UK energy security since the 90s of the 20th century to the date (June 23, 2016) of referendum on the UK exit from the European Union (Brexit). The problem is considered in its evolution: from the moment of its emergence during the conservative government of John Major, via the attempts to define the different aspects of the problem and to outline ways to solve it by labour cabinets of Tony Blair (1997–2007) and Gordon Brown (2007–2010), and up to formulating the notion of ‘energy security’ and making concrete steps to strengthen the UK energy security during David Cameron – Nick Clegg coalition cabinet (2010–2015) and the conservative cabinet of David Cameron (2015–2016). The problem is scrutinized with the help of vast number of the official documents and White Papers on energy policy of British governments, the UK Ministry of Energy and Climate Change and the Foreign Office. The article shows that the problem of reducing greenhouse gases emissions as an important part of the international efforts for containment of global climate changes is one of the main challenges for the UK energy security and the key driving force behind diversification of the British energy sector. The author considers the rising dependence of the UK economic development, the prosperity of British consumers and industry on the guaranteed, affordable, secure supply of fossil fuels from the unstable countries of the world as the second important challenge in strengthening the UK energy security. The transition of the United Kingdom’s energy balance towards rapid implementation of the low-carbon technologies (the nuclear power and the renewable energy sources [RES]) is seen in the article as the way to meet two above-mentioned challenges and to strengthen the UK energy security.