Energy White paper 'massive blow to common sense'
22 May 2007
The Green Party today responded to the Government's Energy White Paper:
Principal Speaker Siân Berry said: "Today's Energy White Paper is a massive blow to common sense. Government support for nuclear power is disastrous, and means committing the UK to a dirty, dangerous and astronomically expensive future.
"The Green Party intends to fight these proposals all the way. We are confident that if the public consultation into nuclear power is run fairly and honestly, people will give a resounding no to the dirty technology of the past.
"The UK is awash with renewable resources, but Gordon Brown wants to continue shovelling taxpayers' cash into the ailing nuclear industry, at the cost of damaging the fledgling renewables market. Today's proposals will cripple the green energy market.
"We have the potential to become a world leader in the young, clean and cutting-edge renewable energy industry, and are better placed than anywhere else in Europe to access this source of power.
"Yet Britain gets just 2% of its energy from renewables. In Germany, where government support for the renewables has been unstinting and comprehensive, this figure is more than tripled. (1)
RENEWABLE FUNDING MISERLY IN COMPARISON TO NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES
Siân also commented on the level of investment in renewables proposed in contrast to the amount of money involved in a new generation of nuclear power stations:
"The subsidies from the Climate Change Levy and Renewables Obligation will generate only £2 billion a year for the industry by 2020 - a miserly amount when compared with the huge subsidies the nuclear industry will need to build, run and decommission new power stations, and then the expense of dealing with the dangerous waste it will create.
"Microgeneration - small-scale renewable energy generation by households and communities - has received short shrift from the EWP. Nothing is proposed to properly support people wanting to generate their own electricity at home, and the farce of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme looks set to continue with no proper funding proposed beyond the existing tiny amount of £18 million for householders over three years."
GOVERNMENT SHOULD SUPPORT FEED-IN TARIFFS
Siân also spoke of the need for adoption of feed-in tariffs:
"To give us a chance of meeting our targets for renewable energy of 10% of electricity by 2010 and 20% by 2020, the government needs to give up on its confusing mix of policies for renewables and adopt a simple framework of guaranteed prices for exported renewable energy.
"These 'feed-in tariffs' have been used successfully in Germany, and in many other countries, which are now far ahead of us in developing their green energy industries. Our current mess of policies and initatives needs to be phased out, so that a new system, proven to be more effective and - importantly - better value for the taxpayer can be brought in.
"Renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and solar power, are clean, cheap and safe. They do not rely on massive subsidies from the taxpayer far into the future, or a scarce and finite supply of high- grade uranium. Nor can they do irreparable harm to our world and our health."
CIVIL NUCLEAR ENERGY MEANS GREATER RISK OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Siân also talked of the wider impacts on our safety in going down the nuclear route:
"A nuclear future for energy also means exposing Britain, and the world, to greater risk of terrorist attacks and nuclear war, as it increases the volume of nuclear materials available.
Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP also commented on the proposals:
"Nuclear power plants source enormous amounts of cool water from rivers and reservoirs to keep operations at safe temperatures. With soaring global temperatures however, the water will simply be too warm to use, leaving power stations with little choice but to restrict output or fall foul of environmental practice.
Dr. Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for the South East said that the paper looks set to fail tomeet EU targets on energy efficiency and renewables - and could undermine EUefforts to cut emissions across the union, an MEP has warned.
"At its Spring Summit EU heads of government agreed targets of improvingenergy efficiency and increasing the amount of energy we generate fromrenewable sources, both by 20% by 2020.
"Despite introducing a number of small energy efficiency schemes, theproposals contained in the White Paper are unlikely to come close to meetingthese agreements. After all, this is a Government that has presided overincreasing CO2 emissions despite adopting targets to cut them.
"By prioritising the construction of new nuclear power stations overreducing demand for energy - in particular by decentralising the country'selectricity supply network - the Government is not only missing a trick, itis undermining efforts to tackle climate change - and widening the riftbetween Brussels and London."
ENDS
Notes for Editors
