Conceptualising the Energy Constitution: Lessons from Northern Ireland

In order to elucidate key aspects of the relationship between energy and constitutionality, Muinzer and Ellis (2017) have mapped the full spectrum of UK reserved/devolved constitutional powers and thrown into relief the complex form and nature of low carbon energy powers within that nexus. This low carbon-specific framework, and an understanding of its complex, contingent qualities and interconnected constitutional principles provides insight into the extent to which constitutional arrangements reify the territoriality of energy governance and policy capacity, structuring the policy and governance relationships between national and substate multi-level decarbonisation processes. This study develops this ‘Energy Constitution’ framework with reference to fuel poverty, honing in on the UK and according particular attention to Northern Ireland, a UK jurisdiction that often receives little attention in energy policy studies, but that has had notably high levels of fuel poverty, in addition to the weakest substate economy and the most energy insecure circumstances in the UK.