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The Guardian: Environmentalists urge Brown to overhaul Britain's energy policy to meet EU targets

• 
  Ashley Seager
  
• 
  The Guardian
  
• 
  Tuesday August 14 2007
  

Groups including Greenpeace, the Renewable Energy Association, Friends of the Earth and the New Economics Foundation reacted angrily to revelations in the Guardian that government officials had secretly acknowledged that the UK would struggle to meet the EU target of 20% renewables by 2020 and had suggested it be reinterpreted to make it easier to achieve.

The groups wrote to the prime minister saying it would be "unfortunate if the leadership shown by the UK in getting these European targets adopted in March were now eroded by a serious lack of ambition in our domestic policy.

"Our European colleagues will be looking to the UK to propose a realistic contribution, especially as we have the EU's best resource of wind, tidal and wave energy. Such lowly domestic ambition also threatens to undermine the credibility of the new climate change bill, which puts into statute the commitment to long-term emission reductions."

The letter calls on Mr Brown to commission an open assessment of the 20% target. "We look for your reassurance that the intellectual capital of the government is being invested in defining ways of meeting our renewable energy commitments, not wriggling out of them."

Downing Street said in response to the Guardian report on the leaked guidance that the UK was fully committed to renewables. "It is no secret that these are ambitious targets and it will be a major challenge to meet them, not just for the UK, but for all EU states. It is now for the [European] commission to propose how the EU-wide targets should be met."

An internal Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) paper obtained by the Guardian showed that under current policies Britain, which currently sources just 2% of its overall energy from renewables, would get to only 5% by 2020. The EU average at present is 7%. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is currently on 13%, but hopes to get to 27% by 2020, thanks to its large renewables industry.

Green groups argue that Britain could achieve 20% by 2020 if it really wanted to. Adam Bruce, chairman of the British Wind Energy Association, said: "It is simply wrong for civil servants to now suggest that the 20% EU target cannot be met - the UK wind energy industry is confident that it can meet these new renewable objectives if the government takes the necessary measures to support it."

He said 40% of the EU's entire potential wind energy blows across Britain, but a lack of government action was preventing its proper exploitation.

Andrew Simms, head of the New Economics Foundation, said: "If renewable energy in Britain had enjoyed for decades the blank cheque that was written for the nuclear industry, today most of our electricity would be coming from a combination of wind, wave and solar power.

"If the DBERR continues to undermine progress toward the new, renewable energy economy it will potentially do even more damage than a leaky reactor."

The energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, told BBC radio that the government was on course to meet its own target of generating 15% of Britain's electricity from renewable sources by 2015. He acknowledged the EU target was more demanding.

It was responding to a report in the Guardian that officials had told ministers the UK would miss EU targets by a wide margin.

Gordon Brown's official spokesman said: "It will be a major challenge not just for the UK but for the EU."

Tony Blair signed up to the EU targets in March - before he resigned as prime minister in June.

They include a 20% reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 1990 levels, or 30% if other developed nations agree to take similar action.

'On course'

The targets also include an increase in the use of renewable energy, to 20% of all energy consumed, and a 20% increase in energy efficiency.

Mr Brown's spokesman said the EU's aims were "ambitious", but added that the UK was "on course to meet" its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, which it ratified in 2002.

He added: "It is now for the EU Commission to propose how EU-wide targets should be met by member states."

This reportedly said that, under current policies, it would be "challenging" for Britain to reach a target of 9% for energy renewables such as wind, solar or hydropower - well short of the EU's 2020 target of 20%, but up from the current 2%.

According to the Guardian, the briefing paper said the UK had "achieved little so far on renewables".

The officials suggested ministers lobby other countries to get more flexible ways of reaching the targets, such as including nuclear power, the newspaper said.

But Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks strongly rejected claims that the government was not committed to renewables, saying various proposals to meet the targets had been drawn up for discussion.

'Absolutely determined'

"At the moment, about 4 to 5% of our electricity comes from renewables. We're on course for that to be three times as much - 15% by 2015.

"We've now got this more demanding European target, in other words, not just electricity, but fuel we need for our cars and our heating as well, and the issue is how do we get there?"

He added: "We are determined to make our contribution on this... We are moving steadily, year after year, in the right direction.

"We're ambitious about renewables and I'm absolutely determined that we move forward on renewables."

But environmental group Friends of the Earth said the briefing paper showed the government was trying to water down its commitments.

Campaigns director Mike Childs told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's very clear that what they're trying to say is 'we want to introduce maximum flexibility within the targets', and they float ideas about saying 'can we use our nuclear power as part of that targets?

"Now, clearly nuclear power isn't a renewable industry, so what they are trying to do is weaken it as far as possible.

"It is a very damning document and it does give a very interesting insight into the way that government operates."

Shadow business, enterprise and regulatory reform secretary Alan Duncan accused the government of "living a lie" over climate change.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Chris Huhne said: "This leaked paper shows that ministers are not trying to meet their renewables targets but instead are trying to wriggle out of them."

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