Changes are needed to meet targets
Jul 1 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal
THE economic slowdown should not distract politicians from taking urgent action to tackle climate change and secure the UK’s future energy supply but this must be tackled in a pragmatic way.
Alternative energy sources are an economic opportunity on a scale not been seen before but renewable energy targets need to be realistic and delivered in a cost effective way.
The CBI believes there are four key priorities for sustainability: improving energy efficiency; getting the next phase of the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) right; reforming the UK’s planning process to increase access to low carbon energy; and keeping security of energy supply and economic competitiveness on the climate change agenda.
The CBI is calling on European policymakers to take steps necessary for business to give its full support to the third phase of ETS, the scheme designed to help tackle climate change by putting an overall cap on carbon emissions.
To give the next phase of ETS the best chance of success, the CBI argues there are four elements which the EU must deliver including a tough emissions cap and a wider use of auctioning for allocating emissions permits.
Changes to the planning system – especially the creation of an Independent Planning Commission – are vital if the UK is to have any chance of meeting its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and if we are to ensure we can meet our energy security needs.
To meet our climate change targets, we believe we may need several new nuclear stations consented by 2020, and over 40 large offshore wind farms. Put simply, we don’t believe the existing planning system can deal with so many complex, controversial planning applications in time.
When it comes to new energy sources, the current emphasis is on the need for decentralised energy, micro generation and tidal power - important stuff but not the source of major mitigation required in the crucial next decade.
Meeting the current EU renewables target is likely to cost the UK an additional £6bn a year. We believe there are more cost effective ways of reducing the UK carbon footprint which must be considered.
We need more investment in carbon capture and storage the source of such high hopes for policymakers and generating companies alike. The technology needs to be tested at scale and its costs reduced if it is to play any significant role much before 2030.
