Following my article of August 22nd on the UK Government’s attempts to worm out of the ‘Binding renewable energy targets’ set in March 2007, we seem to have confirmation this week that operation ‘worm out’ is now being officially put into action. Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister (should we be calling him the ‘As long as it’s not renewable Energy Minister’?) has apparently confirmed that Britain will source ‘up to 15%’ of its energy from renewables by 2020, although this is apparently not to be construed as ‘backing away’ from the EU target of 20%, which has to be achieved ‘across Europe as a whole’.

Well there goes any claim the UK ever might have had to be a ‘leader’ in renewable energy, although, to be honest, did anyone every think we were, apart from some politicians who took the approach of ‘if we say it, maybe people will think it’?

The two things that disappoint me most are this:

  1. The apparent reason for giving up already and so easily. From what I understand, the Government does not judge the problem important enough to take on the investment required to achieve these targets, targets that do not go nearly far enough to solving the problem. They also are not willing to adopt incentive schemes that work so well elsewhere in Europe and, above all, they are set on a path with Nuclear as a major solution, even if it is hugely expensive, always potentially dangerous, only a part of a CO2 reduction solution, and will take as much as 20 years to put in place. Oh, and there’s also the potentially very lucrative new market in carbon trading that needs to be exploited, as we championed it. So it’s basically about money then. Hmmm.
  2. The fact that there is so much potential in the UK to hit and beat these targets, but without leadership it is going to be extremely difficult to achieve anything

I feel disappointed and let down, though not surprised. I have decided to do my best to help people find ways to reduce their CO2 emissions, but, everywhere I turn, I encounter news like this. The easy solution would be to move to Germany, and feel good about things again. The only solution is just to try harder. If we have to do this without our government, then we will, but, if there was an election tomorrow, I wouldn’t vote for this one on current form.