FST JOURNAL

The Energy Breakout session: Preparing for tomorrow’s challenges in health, energy, and AI breakout session, was led by Sue Ferns of Prospect. She explored how the UK can meet tomorrow’s challenges in energy while keeping public support and delivering tangible benefits. Key themes in both the presentation and the following discussion considered the energy trilemma of affordability, security, and sustainability as well as the tension between longer-term goals and the need for visible, shorter-term progress.

Key themes

1) Affordability

Participants agreed that, for many households and energy-intensive industries, the immediate question is cost. Speakers noted that the cost-of-living context makes it difficult for people to prioritise future benefits when they are focused on today’s challenges, for example bills, food costs, and transport. The group emphasised that if the transition is experienced mainly as added friction such as travel restrictions, planning changes or higher upfront costs, public consent will weaken.

 2) Pace, delivery, and trust

A major concern of the group was the credibility gap between ambition for areas such Clean Power 2030 or Net Zero 2050 and delivery mechanisms. Several contributors highlighted that people do not relate to big national targets but to changes in the everyday lived experience. There was also critique of retrospective planning, that is building housing and infrastructure first, then trying to solve congestion, energy demand, or public transport later, creating avoidable backlash and additional cost.

 3) Workforce and the meaning of a “good” or “green” job

Skills shortages were described as pervasive in the discussion, raising questions about where the required workforce will come from. Sue Ferns argued that meeting demand will require significant diversification and a broader view of a “just transition” beyond oil and gas, including bringing in workers from other sectors and those historically excluded from secure jobs. The group also emphasised that geography or place matters, noting that transitioning workers is not realistic if new roles are not available where people live.

 4) Local, place-based benefits and community energy

The group explored whether a place-based approach could reconcile speed with legitimacy. Community energy was raised as a practical route to visible benefits (lower costs, local resilience), which can build confidence even among people not traditionally as motivated by environmental messaging.

 5) Role of government, industrial strategy, and supply chains

Participants contrasted the success of other areas such as solar with the UK’s inconsistent progress on nuclear. Several argued that government must provide stable long-term signals to public investment to ensure the development of UK supply chains and domestic skills. Energy policy was repeatedly linked to industrial strategy by participants, especially for sectors like steel, cement and chemicals.

 6) Technology enablers and cautions (R&D and AI)

R&D, along with less visible underpinning roles such as data, surveying, modelling, safety critical expertise, was recognised as essential in discussions. AI was viewed as valuable for optimisation and modelling, but the group raised concerns about employment impacts, governance, and risk in safety-critical decisions.

 Recommendations for stakeholders

Government: Prioritise cost of living and fairness as explicit transition outcomes; consider place-based delivery demonstrators to show near-term wins; facilitate strategic technologies; utilise policy tools to build UK supply chains; join up education, skills, and industrial strategy to develop a workforce plan.

Industry and investors: Co-design workforce pathways with unions and local partners; commit to apprenticeships and training at scale (not incremental growth); provide transparent job architectures for emerging technologies.

Local leaders and communities: Develop community energy and local benefit models that visibly lower costs; use trusted local messengers and workers to communicate benefits; plan infrastructure proactively alongside housing growth.

Unions and workforce bodies: Champion “good job” standards (security, pay, progression, safety culture) and ensure transition routes include underrepresented groups and regions, not only sector-to-sector moves.