Government not yet meeting climate challenge

Although climate change is at least as big a threat as war, the Government is not yet meeting the challenge. So says Dr Gerry Wolff of "From Greenhouse to Green House", an environmental think tank and campaigning group.

"The recent Energy White Paper is good in parts but not so good in others" said Dr Wolff. "There is a need for a much greater sense of urgency and more joined-up thinking in UK energy policies. And there are some big opportunities that the Government has overlooked." Some of those opportunities are described in "ENERGY UK", a new report that Dr Wolff has prepared.

"The Government is still scarred by its experience in 2002 when it tried to raise the price of petrol and diesel but had to back down after nationwide protests. Now it talks about raising green taxes but is very reluctant to make them has high as they need to be to persuade people to cut down on their use of fossil fuels. A much better idea is to issue everyone with Personal Carbon Allowances that they can buy and sell. If the right number of allowances is issued, many people will get a cash windfall from selling allowances that they don't need. This will make the whole scheme very much more popular than using green taxes."

The Government is worried about gas supplies but is not doing the most obvious thing to reduce our use of gas. Since most buildings in the UK are heated by gas, a nationwide programme of 'super insulation' or 'zero-carbon eco-renovation' would greatly reduce the need for heating in buildings and would reduce the need to bring in gas from abroad. "We should start using much higher levels of insulation than are currently recommended" said Dr Wolff.

Another opportunity is to take advantage of the truly monumental quantifies of energy falling as sunlight in places like the Sahara desert. Although this may seem too far away to be relevant to the UK's needs, a team of researchers at the German Aerospace Center has shown in detail how all the countries of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa could benefit from plentiful and inexpensive supplies of clean energy from solar farms in areas of hot desert. Electricity may be generated using the proven technology of 'concentrating solar power' and it may be transmitted economically over very long distances using a 'Supergrid' of highly-efficient 'HVDC' transmission lines.

There is great potential in other renewable sources of electricity. By itself, offshore wind power could provide three times as much electricity as the UK currently uses. There is certainly no need for nuclear power.

These and other proposals are described in the new report. Copies may be downloaded from www.mng.org.uk/gh/energyUK.html.