The UK retains significant supplies of coal, oil and natural gas. However, production has been in decline since the late 1990s and is no longer sufficient to meet domestic demand. As the country relies increasingly on imports, its exposure to the risk of higher global energy prices will increase. The fell in gas and more recently oil prices may help consumers in the immediate future but these price movements will reverse over time.
Estimates for 2013 suggest that overall gas and coal consumption fell slightly as renewables continued to grow strongly. The other important trend of the past few years was the movement from gas to coal. Coal prices fell as exports from countries including the US-where the shale gas "revolution" has released abundant supplies of cheap gas-rapidly increased, prompting UK electricity producers to shift away from gas. However, The Economist Intelligence Unit expects demand for gas to reassert itself in the face of tightening restrictions on the use of polluting coal.
Carbon emissions are expected to decrease slightly by 2020 even as total energy consumption rises. However, these falls will not be anywhere near enough to meet government targets of cutting emissions to at least 34% below their 1990 level. We believe that carbon emissions will be just below 80% of their 1990 level in 2020.

Energy report 2

Overview 2

Energy policy 2

Oil and gas 3

Electricity 6

Coal 7

Nuclear 8

Alternative energy 8

Industry publishing schedule 10

中国科学技术信息研究所