Whats' the Government doing to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels

(Blog by Climate Change Policy Officer, Helen Blenkharn)

Not enough is the short answer! The UK needs a serious push to get us on the path to a low carbon future and make the green economy the only economy we know.

The Good

In May 2010 David Cameron told civil servants that he wanted to lead “the greenest Government ever”. The signs were promising in Scotland too - Alex Salmond boldly pledged that Scotland would go farther, and faster, than the UK Climate Change Act, by generating the equivalent of 100% of its domestic electricity needs from renewables by 2020.

The Bad and the Ugly

But in the last few months the UK and Scottish Governments have both been accused of having policies for economic growth (largely based on ongoing fossil fuel extraction) and climate change that don’t add up. For example, UK Government recently announced:

• A new Brown Field Allowance that could save oil companies £160 million in tax
• Consent for Shell to drill Fram Field, 220km east of Aberdeen, one of the biggest oil and gas developments to be approved in the last five years
  • That there will be "a generous new tax regime for shale...

• A Gas Generation Strategy that could result in 30+ new gas-fired power stations being built in the UK., thereby tying us into a high emissions future unless Carbon Capture and Storage technology can be developed rapidly

The Scottish Government’s new Oil & Gas Strategy includes plans to sell 12-24bn barrels of oil and gas over the next 40 years which could mean the release of 5.2-10.4bn tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

WWF Scotland said: "It is clearly indefensible to plan to make Scotland a low carbon economy but at the same time quite happily export billions of barrels of oil for someone else to burn.”[1]

Staythorpe Gas-fired power station, Nottinghamshire

Given the impact of fossil fuels on climate change, and the growing threat they pose to the natural environment, the RSPB believes the UK should be developing an exit strategy for fossil fuels that includes:

• minimising the use of fossil fuels in UK energy supply in line with carbon budgets
• minimising future extraction in the UK and exports to other countries
• adopting appropriate safeguards to minimise the impact of fossil fuel extraction on the natural environment, wildlife and the climate.

The low carbon agenda in the UK has stalled and the Climate Change Act is at risk of being seriously undermined.

We’ve been lobbying Government about this through the Stop Climate Chaos coalition’s Green is Working campaign.

The million-dollar question is where does David Cameron stand on all of this? Does he still stand by his pledge to be the greenest Government ever? Decisive action on his part has been lacking and he needs to clarify his Government’s position as a matter of urgency.

Do you think it’s about time David Cameron put an end to all this in-fighting and speculation, and gave a clear steer towards a low carbon economy?