UK Gives Up Only Months After Signing 'Ambitious' Renewables Targets?
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 08.13.07
We’ve recently featured some prominent UK initiatives promoting ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting renewable energy generation. We’ve seen Dale Vince, of UK renewable energy company Ecotricity proposing a ‘zero carbon’ Britain by 2050 (meaning zero carbon emissions, presumably, rather than an eradication of all carbon-based life forms!), and we’ve seen the folks from the Centre for Alternative Energy upping the ante by claiming that this target is achievable by 2027. The UK government, however, seems to take a different view. According to a report in today’s Guardian, government officials have secretly briefed ministers that there is no chance of meeting the renewable energy targets that Tony Blair signed up to earlier this year, and are suggesting that they need to start looking for escape routes:
“In contrast to the government's claims to be leading the world on climate change, officials within the former Department of Trade and Industry have admitted that under current policies Britain would miss the EU's 2020 target of 20% energy from renewables by a long way. And their suggestion that "statistical interpretations of the target" be used rather than new ways to reach it has infuriated environmentalists. An internal briefing paper for ministers, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, reveals that officials at the department, now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, think the best the UK could hope for is 9% of energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar or hydro by 2020.”
Given the lofty rhetoric from the UK government on sustainable development and combating climate change, we can’t help but be deeply disappointed that this isn’t translating into real action. The realization that it may be ‘challenging’ to reach the 20% goal pales into insignificance, when compared to the dire threat of global warming. We’d like to see the Government owning up to its failures so far, but using this as an opportunity to massively increase its efforts in renewable energy and other clean technologies. The gravity of the situation demands nothing less. ::The Guardian::via site visit::
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So here's the situation: you are the British government, facing a planetary catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. Your own scientists tell you that you must cut your CO2 emissions to have any chance of softening the blow. At the same time, your country is facing energy shortages and the whole world is on the edge of permanent inflationary pressure from high oil prices. The country you administer has one of the largest potential sources of clean, renewable energy in the world.
So what do you do?
If you're Gordon Brown and his minions, the answer is: spin. And spend five times more money on enlarging parts of a motorway than on reaching your own renewable energy targets.
The grim truth is that New Labour has been a dismal and cynical failure on energy and the environment. The document leaked to the Guardian makes it clear that the UK, on current levels of investment and government support, has no chance of reaching the EU target of 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. It's more likely to be 5%.
The only reason for this failure (Germany and Spain are far ahead of us, despite our huge wind and wave capacity) is a refusal to invest any money in saving the future. New Labour and grim Gordon simply don't get it: failure to tackle climate change will wipe out their achievements on poverty alleviation, debt restructuring for Africa, hell, even our basic prosperity. The sums being thrown at the greatest crisis of our time add up to peanuts: 1,000 times more tax-payers' money will be wasted on Trident replacement than will be invested in fighting climate change. Either this is craven madness or it's stupidity of the first magnitude. And it's all so avoidable, given the resources and ingenuity of these islands.
I'm afraid the release of this document - weasly civil servants advising politicians how to dodge the truth and spin their own failure - sinks the last nail into the coffin of my hopes for New Labour. Can a Tory government be any worse?
Interesting that this is popping up on the radar just when the House voted to require investor-owned electric utilities nationwide to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind or biofuels.
Anyone doubt that this will be the ammunition the primary resident of Pennsylvania Avenue will use this to shoot the House bill down, saying it's "unrealistic".
I can hear it now, "If the British can't do it on a small island, then how can the entire US be expected to do so?"
sounds just like what happened here in canada. The liberals signed up for kyoto, set some programs in motion, sure it wasn't enough to meet the schedule which is too bad, but there was some effort and attention to the matter. Then along come the conservatives saying we cant meet the target, produce all kinds of propaganda to say they cant meet the target and cut a lot of the liberals programs and make their own programs.
sounds similar.
Except in this case the government didn't change, just the prime minister. So far Brown has been a big disappointment - brown nosing in Washington (pun intended) and now this. Blair may have made a hugely unpopular mistake supporting the Iraq ward but at this rate I doubt it will be long before the Brits will be crying for Blair to come back.