Labour has already
established a good record on the environment with the introduction of
the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme and the climate change levy.
It has set up The Carbon Trust to help business and the public sector
reduce carbon emissions and to move the UK to a low carbon economy able
to benefit from the commercial opportunities.
In a backward move the Conservatives have pledged
to abolish the Climate Change Levy which helps to pay for these initiatives.
To meet global climate targets most of our energy for electricity, heating, cooling and transport will have to come from low carbon sources.
Gordon Brown recently announced the next stage in the low carbon energy plan - the Renewable Energy Strategy. A massive £100 billion pounds investment up to 2020 will include in the strategy:
- renewables to account
for 30% of electricity supply, 14% of heat supply and 10% of transport fuels,
- a 10 times increase
in the current use of renewable energy sources,
- off-shore wind capacity
to be increased to 14 gigawatts (around 3000 new wind machines) equivalent
to about 50% of the renewable energy supply. Onshore wind capacity also
to be increased,
- more energy derived
from biomass and waste,
- a shift to more
decentralised energy production including micro-generation such as solar,
micro-CHP and heat pumps, with financial incentives such as a feed-in-tariffs,
- a greater contribution
from tidal and wave power,
- grants and loans for householders to fit loft and cavity-wall insulation (free NOW to benefit claimants and over 70 year olds), low energy light bulbs and low energy consumer goods.
An additional benefit is that diversified supplies will increase energy security.
These investments will create new industries with thousands of new jobs. It is estimated that the renewables programme will generate 160,000 new jobs, the new nuclear build programme another 100,000 and thousands more as the energy efficiency business grows in scale. Labour wants Britain to have a leading role in the world - leaders in offshore technology, energy control systems, pollution control, carbon trading, waste and water management, environmental monitoring technologies etc. The programme is underpinned with increased spending on energy research.
It has been up to individuals to install solar devices at their own expense, and therefore there are few around the borough. The increased price of fossil fuels should provide a major boost to the solar energy industry. As Guildford is in one of the sunnier parts of the UK, solar power and water heating can make an absolute saving of fossil fuels with reduced pay-back times.
