Senior Analyst - Power Lead - Climate Change Committee

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is seeking a high-performing, self-motivated, and enthusiastic analyst to lead our work on decarbonisation of the power sector. This will involve leading the CCC’s analysis and policy advice in this critical sector, including building on our impactful Seventh Carbon Budget advice, developing and implementing a work programme in preparation for our advice on the Eighth Carbon Budget, and contributing to our annual UK progress reports to Parliament. This role will give the successful applicant the chance to work right at the heart of the decarbonisation and resilience challenge - driving forward analysis and advice on decarbonising our electricity sector, which underpins the delivery of Net Zero across the economy, whilst making sure our system is resilient to the changing climate. It also offers the opportunity to work directly with the Climate Change Committees, comprising some of the foremost experts in climate change mitigation and adaptation., * We are now beginning the next cycle of our analytical work, gearing up for advising on the Eighth Carbon Budget (covering 2043-2047). The successful applicant will have the opportunity to scope out and implement a work programme to build the evidence-base required for this in the electricity sector. This is likely to involve considering what the key emerging issues are in decarbonising and expanding the power system, reviewing literature and developing new analysis to tackle these, and working with senior leadership and the Committee to agree focus areas for policy advice. This will require effective working and collaboration across the secretariat, given the wider relationships between electricity supply and other sectors.

• In addition to this deliverable, the successful candidate will lead the power sector contributions to the CCC’s mitigation progress reports for the UK and the three devolved administrations, providing an assessment of Government progress against its plans for reducing emissions. This involves assessing emissions data, delivery indicators, and policy effectiveness.

The post-holder will report to a team leader (Civil Service Grade 6) who leads a team of around four sector leads and multiple junior analysts. The post-holder may also have the opportunity to line and task manage one analyst (Civil Service SEO/HEO Grade or seconded in from industry). The post-holder will work in close collaboration with the sector leads for other related areas (Civil Service Grade 7), including for buildings, transport, and fuel supply. We are an enthusiastic, friendly and inquisitive team, all committed to addressing climate change and to supporting one another in doing so., The CCC cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. The CCC does not hold a Visa sponsorship licence.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Please note the information for candidates attached.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Feedback Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Applicants with relevant experience, ideally including knowledge of the energy system, are sought. This is an analytical post so a degree or post-graduate degree in a numerate discipline (e.g. engineering, environmental science, economics) is essential. The CCC has affiliation with the Government’s analytical professions (GES, GORS, GSS, or GSR) and it is possible for analysts to maintain these memberships at the CCC. If you are a member of one of these professions, please indicate this in your application. We also welcome applications from outside these professions., * Analytical skills: excellent analytical skills including the ability to apply appropriate quantitative analytical tools and techniques, and synthesise evidence from a range of sources, as appropriate. Assess the reliability and relevance of evidence and give objective evidence-based advice. Quality-assure models, challenge input data and assumptions, and interpret output data for the purposes of providing supporting evidence.

• Numeracy skills: excellent numeracy and spreadsheet skills. Some experience coding (for example, in Python or R) would be an advantage but is not essential.

General skills

• Communication skills: excellent communication and influencing skills both written (drafting clear, well-evidenced, and engaging inputs to CCC reports and other outputs) and verbal (presenting findings at monthly Committee meetings and to senior members of the CCC secretariat and Chief Executive, clearly articulating your analysis and its complexities to help the Committee understand the issues and reach its conclusions).
• Stakeholder engagement: excellent ability to engage with wide and diverse stakeholder groups, including those in academia, business, NGOs, and across Government and representing the CCC at high-profile engagements.
• Project management skills: ability to manage high-priority modelling projects, shaping the direction of the work, and managing consultants.
• People management: line management experience is desirable as this role may have the opportunity to line manage an analyst, setting clear direction and objectives, and supporting their development., * A degree or post-graduate degree in a numerate discipline (e.g. engineering, environmental science, economics) is essential. (Please note that the CCC has affiliation with the Government’s analytical professions (GES, GORS, GSS, or GSR) and it is possible for analysts to maintain these memberships at the CCC. If you are a member of one of these professions, please indicate this in your application. We also welcome applications from outside these professions.)
• Expertise and previous experience working in the energy system (including modelling, either directly and/or running modelling projects) is highly desirable., This is an analytical post so a degree or post-graduate degree in a numerate discipline (e.g. engineering, environmental science, economics) is essential., * Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Specialist Analytical Skills, This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills., Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Alongside your salary of £62,024, Climate Change Committee contributes £17,968 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%, We support a wide variety of working patterns such as compressed hours, hybrid working, part time hours, job sharing and flexi time. National pay bands may be used where staff apply to work from home for more than 60% of their working hours and live outside London. Regular attendance at our London office, for example for meetings and training, will still be required. The national pay band for this grade is £57,323 to £64,809.

The Climate Change Committee is the independent expert statutory adviser to Parliament and the UK Government on climate change policy. It was created as a key part of the long-term legal framework set out in the Climate Change Act (2008). The Act sets a long-term target for 2050 (Net Zero, a 100% reduction in net emissions from 1990) and requires that carbon budgets (five-year caps on emissions) are set on a path towards the long-term target. These targets have been legislated in-line with the Committee’s advice. The Act also requires that the UK assesses and responds to the risks that it faces as the climate changes.

The CCC has established itself as a high-profile, high-impact expert body in the analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Its reports can be accessed from the CCC’s website: www.theccc.org.uk. The CCC is comprised of two Boards, ‘the Committee’ (covering expertise in mitigation) and ‘the Adaptation Committee’ (covering expertise in adaptation); and an analytical secretariat. The Committees have a distinguished membership of leading experts from the fields of climate change, science, engineering and economics: https://www.theccc.org.uk/about/. The Committees are supported by a secretariat of around 50, including economists, operational researchers, scientists and other analysts.

The CCC was the first body of its kind in the world and brings together different strands of expertise from its members, from government, the research community and business. It draws on existing information and undertakes its own analysis to provide expert advice to Ministers and to Parliament. It is required to give advice to Ministers on climate change matters covered by the Climate Change Act and on an ad-hoc basis as and when requested.

Role description

This role will sit in the mitigation team of the CCC secretariat, which develops analysis to inform pathways for decarbonising the UK economy and monitors progress towards delivering the Government’s decarbonisation plans. The team develops analysis, research and policy advice and communicates the Committees’ conclusions through various outputs, including published reports. The mitigation team consists of central analytical teams who coordinate on cross-cutting issues and sectoral teams who lead our analysis of each sector of the economy. This role will sit within one of the sectoral teams, leading our work on electricity.

Decarbonising the electricity sector is strategically important because it unlocks emissions savings across the whole economy, as sectors such as transport and home heating switch from fossil fuels to electric power. The electricity sector has seen some of the most rapid and exciting decarbonisation developments in recent years, with emissions falling significantly over the past decade and costs plummeting such that wind and solar are now the cheapest forms of generation. The challenge will be meeting the growing demand for electricity as sectors such as heating and transport electrify (more than doubling electricity demand by 2050), while decarbonising electricity generation and enabling electricity prices to fall.

Efforts to decarbonise the system must go hand in hand with making sure it is resilient to the changing climate, covering climate hazards such as heatwaves, flooding, drought, wind and storms. This is now more important than ever, as we seek to build new infrastructure to generate and deliver low-carbon energy, undertaking a once in a generation overhaul of the energy system.

Last year, the CCC published advice on the level of the Seventh Carbon Budget, which has recently been passed into law. This was a high-impact piece of work, which has generated a lot of interest, especially in the power sector. We are now beginning the next analytical cycle, gearing up for our advice on the Eighth Carbon Budget. In parallel, the CCC will also be delivering policy advice to Parliament and to the devolved administrations in the form of progress reports. The successful applicant will have an important role in all these areas. More detail on each is set out below.

• The CCC’s advice on the Seventh Carbon Budget, published last year, set out our latest assessment of a deliverable pathway for decarbonising the UK’s economy, along with the costs, savings, and wider impacts that this could have. This advice has had significant impact, with the Government choosing to legislate the budget in line with its recommendation. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to represent the power sector elements of this advice in engagements with stakeholders across government, business, and the research community, and to explore work that we could undertake to build on it.