By Pip Roddis, Climate Policy Officer
As we know, renewable energy is vital part of the toolkit to mitigate climate change and reduce climate impacts on wildlife. The RSPB uses renewable energy across many of our nature reserves, including solar panels, sustainable biomass and small-scale wind turbines, and later this year we will be putting up a medium sized wind turbine at our UK Headquarters.
This wind turbine alone is expected to generate the equivalent of two thirds of the RSPB’s total UK electricity needs, and it is estimated that it will reduce UK emissions by just over 1000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
We know that if appropriately sited and properly managed, renewable energy technologies can be deployed whilst also protecting wildlife and habitats and they deliver significant carbon savings. The RSPB favours a broad mix of renewables including solar, wind and marine energy technologies, as long as they are sensitively sited to avoid impacts on wildlife and the wider natural environment.
As one of the UK's leading environmental organisations, we think it is important for the RSPB to play a proactive role in leading action on tackling climate change and deploying renewable energy. However, the transition to a more sustainable energy system will need to happen right across the UK economy.
It is vital that the newly elected Government maintains its commitment to renewable energy, and continues to support renewable energy developments that are genuinely low carbon. We have written elsewhere about the issues surrounding biomass power stations, which can emit more carbon than they save, yet continue to receive low carbon subsidies.
The UK is currently on track to meet its renewable energy targets, but there is still a long way to go, and this Government is going to have to show leadership and ambition in order to keep us on course and maintain a stable policy environment for renewable energy. So let’s keep calm, and carry on.
Matt Williams, Assistant Warden, RSPB Snape.