MORE by accident than design, Britain has come up with a radical green energy strategy that could help rid the planet of the dirty old technologies of the last century. But while it opens the door to renewable energy sources, many observers are already predicting that it will fail because it lacks specific measures to back up its aims.
Britain鈥檚 long-awaited energy White Paper, published this week, aims to set the country on a path to 鈥渓ead the world鈥� by creating a low-carbon economy founded on renewable energy sources and improved energy efficiency. For the first time, it says that steep reductions in carbon emissions can be achieved without building any more nuclear power stations.
There is widespread doubt, however, over whether the government has put in place enough funding and detailed policies for its strategy to succeed. 鈥淕reat vision, shame about the mechanics鈥� was the reaction of critics this week.
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The overriding aim of the document is to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide 鈥渂y some 60 per cent by about 2050鈥�, in line with a recommendation from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. The prime minister, Tony Blair, has said he wants every developed country to do the same, which would oblige many of them 鈥� not least the US 鈥� to revolutionise their policies on fossil fuels.
The document ditches a 拢10 billion plan to build 10 nuclear stations to replace reactors due to be closed down over the next 20 years. But that decision is based as much on political expediency as principle, as Britain鈥檚 nuclear industry is in financial meltdown. British Energy, the company that would run any new nuclear stations, was recently on the verge of bankruptcy and had to be bailed out by the government to the tune of 拢650 million.
The new strategy dismisses nuclear power as 鈥渁n unattractive option鈥� compared with renewable energy and improved energy efficiency. 鈥淚f we had said now we were going to build a whole new generation of nuclear power stations, we would have destroyed the incentives to go for energy efficiency and renewables,鈥� says the industry secretary, Patricia Hewitt.
Predictably, this approach has infuriated the nuclear industry and its supporters. 鈥淪hort-sighted and unrealistic鈥� is how it was described by Tony Cooper, the chairman of the British Nuclear Industry Forum. The Royal Society, which has been lobbying for a new nuclear programme, accused the government of 鈥渁 lack of political courage鈥�.
But the strategy鈥檚 bold promises on renewables and energy efficiency have not won it many plaudits either. Last-minute objections from the Treasury led to proposed targets being diluted to the point where their usefulness is being called into question. For example, a target to generate 20 per cent of electricity from renewable sources such as wind, wave and tidal power by 2020 has become merely an 鈥渁spiration鈥�.
The only new money on offer is an extra 拢60 million in capital grants for renewable projects before 2006. And a recommendation from government advisers to increase home energy efficiency by 20 per cent by 2010, and again by 2020, has simply become a desire to achieve 鈥渇ar more in the next 20 years than previously鈥�. The main tool to achieve this is a promise to revise the building regulations in 2005.
This amounts to little more than business as usual, according to Catherine Mitchell, a renewables expert on the government鈥檚 Energy Advisory Panel. 鈥淲ithout targets, investors are not going to believe that the government is serious,鈥� she told 快猫短视频.
Like most major policy statements, the energy strategy is a messy compromise designed to appease a host of competing interest groups. So perhaps it is not surprising that none of them seems to like it. But it does at least signal Britain鈥檚 intention to follow a new path.
The White Paper gives the alternatives to nuclear power a chance to prove themselves over the next few years. If they succeed, it may be despite government policies rather than because of them. If they fail, it will be the nuclear industry that comes riding over the horizon to the rescue.
