Infrastructure defines the limits of the future. The choices made now over energy, transport and urban planning literally set in concrete patterns of economic activity for 30 to 100 years. Bad infrastructure decisions restrict public choice, create vulnerability and liabilities. Goof infrastructure decisions promote prosperity, protect people and increase fairness. Influencing infrastructure choices, and the markets that shape them, is at the heart of delivering sustainable development.

Nick Mabey began working on infrastructure decisions as a negotiator for PowerGen for UK power sector liberalisation, with a focus on developing new market rules for delivering investment in system security & combined heat and power. He then experienced the opposite regulatory approach as an analyst in the MIT Energy Lab AGREA team supporting utilities and regulators in North-East United States in unblocking legal disputes over energy investment choices.

Witnessing first hand the strengths and weaknesses of both centralised and market-led approaches was invaluable in shaping his work on energy policy and transport investment inside the UK government, and his subsequent role on the Infrastructure-UK Advisory Council.

A core theme of Nick’s work has been to integrate demand side investment fully into infrastructure planning in the UK and Europe including through his roles on the board of EU-Alliance to Save Energy and as a founder of the UK Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group.

Nick has worked extensively on the regulation of EU energy infrastructure including UK and EU power market reform, and the creation of a North Seas Grid to effectively harness off-shore wind power. Central to this has been working to integrate planning of EU electricity and gas grids to ensure coherent & future proof investment.

Despite some successes, distributed & demand side options - including diigitisation and storage - are still disadvantaged in power market design and infrastructure investment, including through EU State Aid rules. This represents a critical risk to the delivery of deep decarbonisation in the coming decade.

E3G is increasingly working on whole economy infrastructure governance and financing including through engagement with new institutions like the UK National Infrastructure Commission and reform of public banks. Critical to this is developing reforms for better democratic oversight and devolution of infrastructure spending especially on issues of climate resilience.