Speaking at a meeting of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, he said whatever option was pursued were the UK to vote to leave, there would be a trade-off between different concerns: “It’s independence versus the economic gains of cooperation.”
Senior research fellow for energy, environment and resources at Chatham House, Anthony Froggatt said the UK “shouldn’t cut itself off from the single energy market”, but said remaining in it would mean Britain having “to abide by many of, if not all of, the European energy market regulations.”
He said that, in the event of a Brexit, the UK would go from “sitting at the table to adopting policies agreed by others”.
Experts told the committee “we do not know what Brexit would mean” for the UK’s energy system, as it is not clear what relationship the UK would have with the EU.
Froggatt, said one option would be to follow in the footsteps of Norway, becoming a member of the European Economic Area.
He said it would be the “least disruptive” change but wouldn’t make Britain more independent as “Norway just adopts the European legislation” on the single energy market without having a role in its formation.
Another would be to join the European Energy Community, as several non-EU countries in the Balkans have done. He said he thought this was “highly unlikely” and would probably mean the “adopting on mass” of EU laws.
He thought the Swiss model was the most likely choice, whereby Britain would negotiate a series of deals on specific policy areas.
Another alternative, Grubb said, would be to join a customs union with the EU as Turkey has done but said it was “unclear” whether this would entail access to the single energy market.
Speaking to Utility Week’s sister publication Edie earlier this month, the chairman of Bloomberg New Energy Finance Michael Liebreich said leaving the EU would not have a negative impact on renewable energy investment despite what some had claimed.
A study from the Society for the Environment found that energy and climate policies would be the “most missed” EU laws if the UK were to exit the union.