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Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Part of UK in Sweden

8th August 2013

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: MAKING A DIFFERENCE WITH CONTRACTS FOR DIFFERENCE

I blogged on 4 July about the Government’s proposals for Electricity Market Reform. It sounds, and is, quite technical, but it’s also an important part of stimulating new investment in the UK’s energy sector and meeting our climate change targets.

Part of the deal to attract investment is to have formal agreements which guarantee the price to be paid for electricity produced by various more environmentally friendly means, including on-shore and off-shore wind, solar, etc.

The outline of these deals was published in July when the Government announced the proposed prices to be paid for electricity.

This week a detailed draft of the contract that Government will offer investors in low-carbon energy generation was published, providing further certainty to prospective developers and investors.

The aim of reforming the electricity market is to keep the lights on, decarbonise the economy and minimise costs to consumers, while keeping the sector attractive for investors.

New long term price agreements, the so-called Contracts for Difference, are being introduced to help incentivise up to £110 billion of private sector investment up to 2020, to renew the UK’s energy infrastructure.

Contracts for Difference are vital to give investors the confidence they need to pay the up-front costs of major new energy infrastructure projects.

Today, the draft terms of the contracts were published, alongside the methodology through which contracts will be allocated. The documents and full press release are available on GOV.UK. For more information you can contact Daniel.Nutley2@fco.gov.uk, at the Embassy.

About Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially. He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide…

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially.

He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide range of political and security roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Paul joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993 as Desk Officer for Bosnia. As part of this role he was also Private Secretary to EU negotiator Lord Owen and his representative on Bosnia Contact Group.

His first foreign posting was to Paris in 1995-99 as Second Secretary Political. He was Private Secretary to the Ambassador and latterly part of the UK delegation to the Kosovo Rambouillet negotiations. Then he returned to London as Head of the Kosovo Policy Team, leading work on post-conflict policy in the EU, NATO, UN and G8.

Before his second overseas posting to New York in 2005, Paul held a variety of other EU policy and security appointments in London, such as Head of European Defence Section between 2000-01 and Head of Security Policy Department between 2002-04.

As Head of the Political Section in UKMIS New York, he advised on major policy issues for the UK on the Security Council and the UN World Summit, including the UK EU Presidency in 2005.

Paul returned to London in 2008 as Director, International Security for the FCO. He was responsible for policy on UN, NATO, European Security, arms control and disarmament, human rights and good governance.

Paul was British Ambassador to Sweden from August 2011 to August 2015 and then was Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO.

He was UK Ambassador to the EU for Political and Security affairs from 2017 to January 2020 and became Ambassador to Ireland in September 2020.

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