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The article discusses how Brexit poses some immediate and direct challenges for the security and costs of energy supply. Topics discussed include development of the Internal Energy Market and the associated infrastructure in European Union (EU) member states; Great Britain dependence on energy imports, many of which come from or pass through the EU; and issues for energy and climate policy in a post-Brexit Britain.

Two different proposals for a political basis for a low carbon transformation in Britain have been put forward in recent years by the Miliband brothers. In 2006, David Miliband argued for a new 'environmental contract' between state and citizens, in the spirit of the post-war social contract. Last year Ed Miliband proposed a 'politics of the common good'. The historical sociology of citizenship suggests that the environmental contract approach will not work, mainly because of the pure public bad nature of the climate nature and the politics that flow from this. The 'common good' approach is more promising, but to make any headway, will have to tackle the strengthening of materialism and populism over the last generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]