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6. Brown on Energy...
Last November Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined his views on climate
and energy policy at a WWF conference. He said that ‘over the
coming decades we must move from a largely fossil fuel based economy
to an economy primarily powered by low carbon energy: renewables; potentially
nuclear- subject to the outcome of our consultation; and the emerging
technology of carbon capture and storage’. He noted that ‘at
present around 9% of total energy in Britain is from low carbon sources:
2% from renewables, and 7.5% from nuclear’.
On nuclear he commented ‘having concluded the full public consultation
we held on this issue, we are considering the results and will announce
our decision in the new year’. Well it came (see earlier ), and
so now it is up to the private sector...
On Carbon Capture and Storage he re-announced the competition ‘to
build in Britain one of the world’s first commercial CCS coal
projects’ and added ‘we will also consider whether, if we
can show that carbon capture and storage is technologically and commercially
viable, it should be made mandatory in some form for all new British
fossil fuel plants’.
On renewables, he mentioned new offshore wind, wave and tidal programmes,
including support for tidal current turbines and allowing tidal lagoons
and small barrages to get support from the Renewables Obligation, as
part of the proposed new technology banding arrangements. The Sustainable
Development Commission had suggested that one or more lagoon project
be supported. DBERR said that ‘Work is currently underway to identify
the level of support that tidal lagoons and barrages up to 1GW should
receive through the Renewables Obligation. The detail will be included
in the response to consultation on the RO. It will be higher than the
current level of 1 ROC.’ It added ‘This announcement does
not apply to a Severn Barrage, which would almost certainly be above
1GW capacity. It’s unlikely that the RO in its current format
would support a Severn Barrage.’
Heat and Power
Brown also made a commitment to renewable heat: ‘Meeting our target
will also require greater use of renewables to heat our homes and buildings.
So we will introduce new measures to bring forward renewable heat, with
a call for evidence in January prior to a full consultation. And as
we expand renewable heat we will need to ensure that, wherever feasible
and economic, we generate electricity and heat together. So instead
of all our energy being generated remotely, more can be supplied locally-
making more efficient use of our energy resources.’ He also noted
that ‘meeting our renewables target will also require greater
use of energy derived from waste; a major expansion of energy from biomass;
and greater use of microgeneration, including, as costs come down, more
solar power’.
More Consultations
And finally- yet more consultations and reports. Brown said he recognised
that ‘windfarms and other new energy installations are often seen
as a burden to the local communities living near them, while their benefits
go to society at large. So I want to explore how local communities can
themselves benefit from the economic opportunities they create’,
and, more generally, he said the government ‘will launch a consultation
inviting a serious national debate about how we are to achieve our targets’.
And after that he reported that ‘we will publish our full Renewable
Energy Strategy the following spring- once the EU Directive is passed
and we know what the UK’s contribution will be’. So that’s
now a year away. But, ‘in the meantime we will legislate, as promised,
in our Energy Bill to reform the Renewables Obligation to bring forward
newer technologies. And we will introduce in our Planning Bill new measures
to speed up the planning system for major infrastructure projects, whilst
ensuring the public are properly consulted.’
...and on Climate action
‘Our mission is, in truth, historic and world changing- to build,
over the next fifty years and beyond, a global low carbon economy. And
it is not overdramatic to say that the character and course of the coming
century will be set by how we measure up to this challenge. The climate
change crisis is the product of many generations, but overcoming it
must be the great project of this generation.’
While some of the media focussed on the short term practical measures-
the new ‘green hotline’ to advise people on how to cut their
impact on the environment, the ‘green retailer’ initiative,
and the proposed ban on one-use plastic bags- rhetoric like that above
and lofty phrases about making a radical ‘technological transformation’
akin to the industrial revolution, certainly earnt him some wider credits
amongst greens.
Even so, in the Guardian (21/11) Polly Toynbee asked ‘does Brown
realise this can't be done by consulting committees or just by markets
and trading systems? He promised thousands of green jobs and environmental
apprenticeships to upskill the workforce, but Germany only achieved
10 times our windpower and 300 times our solar power by direct intervention,
including guaranteeing electricity prices for secure investment in new
technologies. Brown resists intervention in markets, but industry needs
a kickstart. So far Labour’s record has been dismal, letting carbon
emissions rise by 2%. Renewable energy reached just a pathetic 2%: in
the EU, only Malta has less.’
Browns proposals for more offshore wind, and for backing wave and tidal
power more effectively, although welcome, still don’t seem likely
to be enough to get the UK out of the bottom end of the league table.
We’re still stuck with the Renewables Obligation.
However, although the means of achieving it are not clear, Brown does
seem to have made more of a commitment, at least in the longer term,
to responding to climate change. He indicated that the proposal in the
Climate Bill that the UK cut carbon dioxide emissions of at least 60%
through domestic and international measures by 2050, might need revision
since ‘the evidence now suggests that, as part of an international
agreement, developed countries may have to reduce their emissions by
up to 80%. So we will put this evidence to the committee on climate
change and ask it to advise us, as it begins to consider the first three
five-year budgets, on whether our own domestic target should be tightened
up to 80%.’
That will of course take time to agree- FoE et al had wanted it to be
set now and to be buttressed by annual targets. But at least some things
seem to be moving the right way. Although not everything- unless there
is a sudden profound change of view, we are still likely to be faced
with a new nuclear power programme which diverts funding and resource
from renewables.
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