Britain’s energy policy fails to stack up, says expert panel

The government has failed to provide Britain with a coherent energy strategy, putting future supplies and climate change goals at risk and falling short of what is needed to help the world’s poorest countries adapt to rising temperatures, a top-level panel of experts says today.

Lord Patten of Barnes, chair of the Oxford University task force, said: “Britain’s energy policy just doesn’t stack up. It won’t deliver security. It won’t deliver on our commitments on climate change. It falls short of what the world’s poorest countries need.”
He was also critical of the recent white paper on energy policy. “The government’s latest energy review underlines that the UK has a set of energy policies that don’t stack up. We need energy policies which step up to our commitments to address climate change and global poverty.”

The report, to be released today, says UK policy is a hotchpotch of measures that is unlikely to deliver the government’s vision. It found the government’s strategy was inadequate in all three of the priority areas set by ministers: ensuring guaranteed future supplies of fuel, reducing carbon emissions and cutting global poverty. It also criticises the lack of decision-making over nuclear power and warns that getting energy policy wrong risks creating new enemies in Europe.

“The UK government has no coherent strategy for replacing the one-third of UK electricity generation which is about to be retired (much of it nuclear). Its equivocation on this is deterring necessary policy commitments and investments in renewables and carbon-neutral technologies,” the report says.

“There is no well-functioning single market in gas in the European Union, nor a common European policy towards Russia, yet these are vital to meet the risks emerging as Gazprom purchases downstream energy assets in Europe and Russian policy takes on a geopolitical colour.”

Guardian