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British Energy White Paper Published

World demand for energy continues to grow. North Sea oil and gas production has hit its peak and is now falling. Foreign oil and gas supplies are concentrated, often in politically unstable regions such as the Middle East. Does the government have a viable solution?

Alistair Darling, UK Energy Minister, made a statement to parliament today prior to the publication of a second energy white paper. He called for a long-term framework for action, including cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, more renewable energy and a global carbon market.

Some of the main points include:

• ·The first priority must be to save energy. Consumers need better information as to how they can save energy.
• ·Nuclear power could play a major role in meeting energy demand.
• ·Wind, wave and tidal power, including a controversial barrage across the Severn Estuary, to be considered as part of the renewable energy mix.
• ·Free visual displays for consumers to view how much energy they are using.
• ·Tougher emissions standards to be introduced for newly built homes and big businesses.
• ·Removal of bureaucratic barriers for the installation of domestic solar panels, wind turbines and combined power and heat generators.
• ·A diverse energy mix, that is good for the security of supplies and will help us to move to a low carbon economy, is desirable.
• ·British-based business should be at the forefront of new technological developments.
• ·Carbon capture and storage will be important as we will rely on fossil fuel based power sources for some time to come. However, there is currently no fully working, full-scale example of carbon capture and storage anywhere in the world. Britain may pioneer the first example.
• ·There needs to be a large variety of low-carbon energy sources, to avoid being too reliant on any one source.
• ·We cannot become a low-carbon economy in a single step.

Excerpts from The Statement

"We face two big challenges: climate change and maintaining stable and affordable energy supply in an increasingly unstable world. The Energy White Paper sets out a long term framework for action to address these challenges at home and abroad.

"The UK is also becoming increasingly dependent on imported oil and gas at a time when global demand is accelerating. We will ensure that we make the most of our substantial remaining reserves in the North Sea, have a diverse range of sources for our imports and make further progress opening up markets in Europe and more widely.

"With a third of our current electricity generation capacity due to close in the next 20 years there is also a pressing need for investment in new low carbon sources. We will work to ensure there is a market price for carbon into the long term by strengthening the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. We will triple the amount of electricity we get from renewables by 2015. We want to lead in the development of carbon capture and storage. And we will consult on the significant role that new nuclear power stations could play in cutting emissions and diversifying our supply.

"With the measures we are proposing across government on energy and the wider environment we can cut emissions by between 23-33 million tonnes of carbon by 2020 (the equivalent of removing all the emissions that we get from every car, van and lorry on Britain's roads today)."

Responses

It is alleged by the Conservatives that the paper does not actually promise anything, particularly for the future of nuclear power.

Oddly, one of the reasons for favouring nuclear power appears to be to help Britain become more self-sufficient in its energy needs. However, Britain does not have any Uranium resources and would be reliant on importing it from overseas. Friends of the Earth have already objected to the inclusion of new nuclear power stations in future energy mix of Britain.

The debate is sure to rage on.