TBI argues that Britain’s energy strategy must be reset to reflect a changed global landscape, positioning energy as a core driver of prosperity and national power.
A reset is “the most effective contribution the UK can make to tackling climate change”.
The North Sea basin should be treated as a home-grown strategic asset worth up to £165 billion, windfall tax axed and a ban on new exploration licenses reversed, to support energy security and generate revenues for the transition.
Britain must “reset” its energy strategy to secure future prosperity, innovation and national power, according to a new paper by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. It argues that the UK must adapt to a changed global context if economic decline is to be reversed and long-term renewal secured.
The paper, Why Britain Needs an Energy-Strategy Reset, argues that the UK’s energy framework has not adapted to economic, technological and geopolitical developments. As a result, “policy is drifting away from the fundamentals that it must serve”.
It reaffirms that Britain’s net-zero commitments for 2050 “must stand firm” and that climate change is “real and dangerous”, but argues decarbonisation alone is not sufficient. “This is not a departure from the UK’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050,” it says, but “a recognition that delivering it now depends on building an energy system that is affordable, reliable and capable of supporting electrification at scale.”
As the economy becomes more electricity-intensive, energy must be treated as core economic infrastructure rather than a subset of climate policy. To meet the country’s climate ambitions, the paper argues an energy strategy is needed that’s “grounded in economics, system performance and political durability”.
Author of the paper, TBI’s director of climate & energy policy Tone Langengen, said: “A reset in Britain’s energy policy is the most effective contribution the UK can make to tackling climate change. At the moment, its narrow focus on whether power is clean means the system has lost sight of whether it is cheap, secure and capable of powering a modern economy.
“Energy policy is drifting away from the fundamentals that it must serve. It should be measured by the outcome that really matters: abundant, affordable electricity that sustains growth, enables electrification and maintains public consent for climate action.”
With the UK increasingly reliant on energy imports, the paper argues for a more strategic approach to domestic supply. It says the North Sea should be treated as a strategic national asset rather than managed through repeated short-term fiscal interventions. A stable, predictable framework for investment, it argues, would support energy security, generate revenues for the transition and help manage decline responsibly – without undermining long-term climate goals.
TBI identifies three shifts reshaping Britain’s energy landscape that must be addressed in policy. First, demand for electricity is rising as the economy electrifies and new technologies such as AI and advanced manufacturing expand. This makes cheap, reliable power an increasingly important factor in the UK’s competitiveness. Second, higher system costs mean that building energy capacity faster no longer guarantees lower bills. Third, energy has once again become a source of national power as countries compete for industry, technology and security.