Climate change is a local, national and global challenge. This book analyses the extent to which the UK's current political paradigm is capable of meeting the challenges of climate change. It argues that it is unlikely that the UK's energy policy will be able to deliver sufficient change to enable a move to a sustainable energy economy unless there are fundamental changes to the way that governments take decisions and make policies. A leading scholar in the field, Catherine Mitchell argues that the political paradigm leads to energy policy decisions made on the basis of narrow market and economic analyses. Only when the complexity of the energy system is recognized and energy policies are implemented as a result of a broader 'system' based analysis of economic, technological, institutional and social factors is there any chance of a successful shift to a sustainable energy system. Placing the UK in comparative perspective, Catherine Mitchell argues for a new way of approaching policy towards energy and sustainability.