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Brown urged to destroy Europe’s 20% renewable targets 23.10.07
Sunset on renewables in the UK?
Gordon Brown is being urged to join with France’s nuclear lobby and Poland’s climate change sceptical government to push to abolish Europe’s renewable energy targets by John Hutton, the secretary of state for business reveals John Vidal in the Guardian.
Less than 12 months ago after Tony Blair signed up to setting a European target of 20% renewable energy by 2020 leaked documents seen by The Guardian newspaper show that the government is looking to wriggle out of it promises once again.
John Vidal, The Guardian’s Environment editor writes, “John Hutton, the secretary of state for business, will tell Mr Brown that Britain should work with Poland and other governments sceptical about climate change to "help persuade" German chancellor Angela Merkel and others to set lower renewable targets, before binding commitments are framed in December.”
"It admits that allowing member states to fall short of their renewable targets will be "very hard to negotiate ... and will be very controversial". "The commission, some member states and the European parliament will not want the target to be diluted, though others may be allies for a change”
John Sauven, the Executive Director of Greenpeace says, "Blair was far from perfect on climate change but he did at least sign Britain up to the momentous 20 per cent renewable energy target and try to position the UK as a world leader on global warming. Now, within months of taking office, Brown is trying to ditch the target and make Britain the climate spoiler. He knows we can meet this target but he still wants to scupper the deal in order to keep the nuclear industry happy."
"Attempts to scupper the 20 per cent renewable energy target would meet strong resistance from Germany and other EU states. In the last six years Germany has increased its percentage of renewable electricity from 6 per cent to 12 per cent compared to the UK which has gone from 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent despite having the best wind resource in Europe. In the same period, the percentage of Germany’s total energy use generated by renewables has gone up from 3.8 per cent to 8 per cent, while the UK has gone from 1 per cent to 2 per cent. As a consequence Germany has created a quarter of a million jobs in renewables - a number that is growing fast. Britain has only 25,000 jobs in renewables, a number that represents the amount of jobs created by Germany in the past year alone."
"So why do it? Because it perversely sees renewables as a threat to its plans for new nuclear power stations and to the growth of a carbon trading market in London’s financial quarter.”
According to The Guardian the paper says, "[Meeting the 20% renewables target] crucially undermines the scheme’s credibility ... and reduces the incentives to invest in other carbon technologies like nuclear power"
Derek Wall, the Green Party’s principal male speaker told naturalchoices, ’It is madness not to invest in renewables, oil prices have hit $90 a barrell even if they fall this is way up on the $10 they were in the late 1990s, temperatures are rising too with more CO2 pumped into the atmosphere every day. Yet the government continues to cut back its renewable plans. Unless Britain seriously and swiftly implements a real plan for renewables our environmental will be wrecked and our economy suffer.’
Next week a full cabinet is expected to discuss this ditching of its commitment to renewables and turn towards a nuclear option, even before the consultation process on the energy policy is finished.
The UK Government wants to promote itself as leading the environmental debate at an international level yet in its actions shall it be known. With only 2% of the UK’s energy requirement being presently met by renewables the UK is increasing the gap between itself and the rest of the European Union.
The country’s energy policy remains in a mess, with a determined lobby seeing private sector driven nuclear as the only viable solution.
Both in the name of energy security and the environment the UK needs a clear commitment to breaking our addiction to an ever increasingly expensive fossil based energy sector. We have the largest wind resource in Europe waiting to be tapped, solar, both thermal and Photo Voltaic, is a viable option in large parts of the country, wave power, tidal power are all proven technologies.
A new innovative industry is waiting to be born yet the Government lacks the imagination to reach for more decentralized renewable solutions trapped as it is in the mindset of old centralized solutions re-enforced by the lobbyists of the large power companies and nuclear generators.
Related links
‘Labour’s plan to abandon renewable energy targets’- John Vidal’s Guardian article
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