Brown pressured to back away from renewable energy targets
Gordon Brown is under pressure to back away from the UK’s renewable energy commitments agreed by Tony Blair and German chancellor Angela Merkel.
The EU commitment demands that Britain get 20 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020.
A leaked briefing to the prime minister, published in the Guardian today, reveals business minister John Hutton believes keeping the commitment will be expansive and “a potentially significant cost in terms of reduced climate change leadership”.
Mr Hutton said there would be “severe practical difficulties” in reaching the target as just generating nine per cent of renewal energy by 2020 is set to cost £4 billion.
However, Mr Hutton also warns backing out of the targets would be “very hard to negotiate… and will be very controversial”.
The UK currently generates just two per cent of its energy from renewable sources.
The news comes as a new report by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on the security of energy, highlights the need for the UK to “move as quickly as reasonably possible towards a low-carbon economy.”
Energy minister, Malcolm Wicks said: “The sooner the world tackles climate change the better, both economically and environmentally.
“The best way of reducing emissions from energy is to use less. But whatever the exact composition of the future energy mix is, it must clearly involve a far greater role for renewable energy.”
The report highlights says deployment of renewables will have an important role to play in cutting carbon emissions.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have criticised the government’s approach to the targets.
Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth said the leaked briefing “blows a massive hold in the government’s previous rhetoric on climate change” and shows the prime minister “neither understands nor cares about the need to tackle climate change”.
Lib Dem environment spokesman, Chris Huhne, urged the government to meet the 20 per cent target.
The Lib Dem leadership contender warned: “The government must not go back on the ambitious targets recently set by European leaders. It is only by aiming high that we can make real progress in tackling climate change.”
Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth reacted angrily to leak.
Robin Webster, senior campaigner on energy and climate, said the 20 per cent target was “undoubtedly ambitious” but presented an opportunity for the UK energy industry to “take a lead in developing the renewable technologies that will be required all over the world in tackling climate change”.
Mr Webster concluded: “This leaked document clearly shows, that the government are wedded to an expansion of nuclear and blind to the potential of what clean and green energy could mean for the UK.”
