Fukushima accident in Japan triggered the discussion worldwide on the role of
science and its relation with policy. Based on their experience of BSE, UK has
developed the institutional mechanism to solve this problem for the past
couple of decades. This study focuses on the role of Researcher/Academia in
making low carbon policy in the UK. UK researchers and universities can enjoy
high a relatively high degree of independence of their research from the
government due to its stature that guarantees its independence. One of the
reasons is that ”the Halden Principle” requires higher research education to
be independent from the government in the UK. In addition to this robust
institutional support, there was a recent movement for evidence-based policy
in the UK, which requires more economic and scientific robustness, therefore
role of engineers and social scientists are increasingly important. Social
science has not been focused that much, but it will have a greater role in
changing people’s behavior with high level of uncertainty. UK businesses have
played a leading role to move forward the climate policy such as UKETS as well
as low carbon policy. The regular communication and consultation is a crucial
basis for making integrated policy, which involves wide range of stakeholders.
Involvement of citizens, on the other hand, is rather limited and their role
should be considered further as the focus of low carbon policy moves to change
of behavior. Climate Change Act 2008 sets out a framework that will put UK on
the path to become a low-carbon economy, with clear, legally binding targets
to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 60% (later increased to 80%) by 2050, and
26% (later increased to 34%) by 2020 below 1990. These legally binding targets
required structural change of the government to implement the necessary
policies and measures especially by the integrating climate and energy policy
