Climate Camp - Greenpeace workshop on the European renewable energy targets, and the UK government’s “Renewable Energy Strategy” consultation

This was (like everything else at climate camp!) excellent – and had some good news, for a change.

The UK has committed to meet, by 2020, “legally binding” European targets on renewable energy. The commitment is for 20% of EU energy, and 15% of UK energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. (Currently less than 2% of UK energy comes from renewable sources.)
Campaigning groups like Greenpeace and FoE are agreed that – for once – this is a really significant step in the right direction, which should have a big positive impact. (Particular if combined with strong steps on energy conservation, etc.)

The government has issued a “Renewable Energy Strategy” consultation paper -
which sets out detailed plans on how these targets can be met.

Many of the points are very positive – for example ambitious plans on wind power, ground source heat, electric cars, “anaerobic digestion” of food waste to generate “biogas”, etc..

HOWEVER – the government is also lobbying to be allowed to water down, or wriggle out of large parts of the commitment – by :
- Allowing countries to buy “renewable energy credits” from outside the EU – to count towards the target.
- Allowing the shifting the deadlines for large projects – so that projects that are only in planning stage in 2020 count towards the targets,
- Diluting the target with rewards for “carbon capture and storage”
- Expanding biofuel use. On a large scale, biofuel is currently NOT sustainable – there should be a moratorium on its development – see next entry.

Greenpeace and WWF have commissioned a report from Poyry which shows that hitting these 2020 renewable energy targets can close the “energy gap” – enabling our needs to be met without building a new generation of non-renewable (coal, nuclear…) power stations. So – given the will – we could go all out for renewable energy without endangering our “energy security”. (This is very significant because the claim that we can’t is the main justification the government uses for their plans to build a massive new generation of coal and nuclear power stations.)
Summary - http://www.newenergyfocus.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=32&listitemid=1528
Full report - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/reports/implications-of-the-uk-meeting-its-2020-renewable-energy-targets

Furthermore – this could be really good for our economy E.g. – to date - Germany have created 250,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector In the UK, we have created one hundredth of that number – 2 – 3 thousand. (Although the 2020 targets should generate a further 160,000 jobs.) And this is despite the UK having pioneered research in some of the technologies – e.g. wave power, and having industrial skills that could be readily applied (e.g. aerospace to wind power.)

And which actually can and should be even more ambitious. For example the Centre for Alternative Technology has produced a feasible strategy for a rapid shift to a “zero carbon Britain” .

What is holding us back? A big part of the answer is undoubtedly the lobbying power of the big energy corporations, and the established links of government and the civil service. For example, there are whole sections of the civil service working on nuclear energy policy, but only a handful of people working on renewables.
For example, the optimal structure of the National Grid is different for a system where most energy comes from massive nuclear and coal-fired power stations, compared with a system where significant generation is from lots of distributed renewable sources. (And – for example – EDF is busy buying up transmitter stations near wind farms – to try to exert more power on the grid architecture.)

There is also separate (but related) government consultation document on heating strategy


Actions you can take –
1 - Write to your MP and (particularly) MEP
- to urge that the UK supports the most ambitious version of the 2020 renewable energy targets, and doesn’t try to water them down.
- To point out that the big energy corporation lobbyists are wrong when they say that sustainable energy cannot meet our needs. The Poyry Greenpeace-WDF report shows this. We should go all-out for investment in renewable energy, rather than a massive programme of new nuclear and coal-fired power stations. (And dubious, unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS).
http://www.foe.org.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/support_renewable_energy_9479.html has a template letter to John Hutton, the energy minister.

2 - Respond to the government’s consultation. Go to http://renewableconsultation.berr.gov.uk/consultation/consultation_summary
This will close 25 September 2008.

3 - Lobby you local authority / local bodies, to move faster towards “transition town” ideas of sustainable energy. Pointing out how this is absolutely in keeping with government commitments, and with the way government policy will be going. The FoE and Greenpeace web sites contain lots of ideas.

(And see Greenpeace’s model of a climate-friendly town – to engage with local authorities.)