UK’s Energy and Climate Change Minister to make strong case for renewables
The UK’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, will today launch a scathing attack on “armchair engineers and climate sceptics” who are selling the UK economy short in their continued criticism of renewables.
The UK’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, will today launch a scathing attack on “armchair engineers and climate sceptics” who are selling the UK economy short in their continued criticism of renewables.
Speaking at an annual conference of the renewables industry in Manchester, Huhne will underline the economic benefits Britain stands to gain in the investment of green energy. The Minister will point to the £1.7 billion awarded to renewable energy projects in the fiscal year thus far and highlight that more than 9,000 people are currently employed by the sector throughout the UK.
“Renewable energy technologies will deliver a third industrial revolution. Its impact will be every bit as profound as the first two. The revolution has already begun, from the Western Isles to the Isle of Wight. Across the length and breadth of Britain, new companies are creating new jobs and delivering the technologies that will power our future,” Huhne will tell the RenewableUK conference. “At a time when closures and cuts dominate the news cycle, next-generation industries are providing jobs and sinking capital into Britain. I want to take aim at the curmudgeons and faultfinders who hold forth on the impossibility of renewables – the climate sceptics and armchair engineers who are selling Britain’s ingenuity short.” 
Huhne’s speech comes after the publication of government proposals to reduce green technology subsidies, including onshore wind. Despite better news on further subsidies on offshore wind, wave and tidal power, the solar industry is expected to be hit hard by the impending review of feed-in tariffs that pay people for the electricity they generate from small-scale renewables. As a result payments for solar-generated electricity are expected to fall sharply. The removal of these subsidies has led to industry claims that jobs are likely to be threatened and sector growth stunted. However, Huhne today will attempt to sway any doubters of the governments’ commitment to renewable energy by announcing that the UK is planning to assert itself as the largest market in Europe for offshore wind.
For the UK to reach its carbon emission target in 2020, achieving levels seen in 1990, it would have to cut emissions by around 34%, and by 2030 they would have to be halved once more. For the UK to reach its EU renewable energy target at the end of this decade, 30% of generated power has to be generated by renewable resources.
According to a report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), by 2030 the UK could be powered primarily by renewable energy without the need for further nuclear power plants.
Image 01: David Spender | Flickr
Image 02: Ashley Dace | Wikimedia Commons
