Labour’s green new Britain

Yesterday the government announced an ambitious new plan to create a low carbon country by 2020. In parliament, the climate and energy secretary Ed Milliband released a wave of proposals aimed at reaching significant carbon reductions. The government insisted that by 2020 one third of the UK’s electricity will be produced from renewable energy sources. To finance this ‘green’ energy expansion the government intends to provide £120m for offshore wind farms, £60m to encourage wave and tidal technologies and £6m for geothermal energy. The government are also going to invest in a new nuclear research facility. Britain’s ageing nuclear power stations are reaching the end of their shelf-lives; the newest station was built almost 30 years ago in 1980’s. Over a year ago the government announced its plans to achieve energy security through a series of newly built nuclear power stations. The first of these new plants is thought to be ready to go online by 2017. However, several experts have suggested that the construction of 10 new reactors would only cut UK CO2 emissions by 4%, hardly a dramatic reduction.

As well as investing in renewable and nuclear energy, the government announced its plan to install ‘smart’ meters in 26 million homes by 2020. Smart meters will allow households to measure their electricity usage and will help to locate electricity sapping appliances. The government also assured voters that the new plan would create over 400,000 green jobs without significantly raising energy prices. Lord Mandelson said “The strategies we are launching today outline the government’s vision for achieving a low carbon future for the UK, reshaping the way we live and work in every element of our lives.”

The new strategy is part of the government’s current push towards tackling global warming and climate change. The intention is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 34% from 1990 levels by 2020. Although the UK is currently at 22% of 1990 levels many of these cuts have been achieved through the EU emission trading scheme. The scheme allows countries to offset their CO2 emissions by trading allowances with other energy companies and governments.

Although the new plan was widely praised by environmentalists, some have suggested that the new strategy does not go far enough to tackle climate change. Concerning the new policies Alison Doig from Christian Aid suggested that “Our fear is that they will not achieve enough to help keep the global temperature rise below 2C (3.6F) and safeguard people in developing countries from dangerous climate change. We also question whether the government has shown enough ambition to inspire courageous commitments by other industrialised countries.”