Let’c cut to the quick… Todays announcement by the Government to reduce 2025 CO2 emissions to half of those from 1990 is very good news for two reasons:
- For the obvious environmental benefit.
- Because the “green revolution” is gaining pace and developed economies cannot afford to miss out. The shift in policy will force investment to occur where before there was little or none.
Old world industries such as steel may complain about higher energy prices in the short term, but with annual energy inflation already in double digits just wait until oil hits $200 a barrel! Just as the print and publishing industry bemoaned competition from the internet many still see renewables as a problem rather than opportunity.
Renewable energy technology is one of the few industries that currently has the potential for massive growth. For strategic and economic reasons the UK must be fully committed to develop and manufacture its own technology. Otherwise, just as we import oil and gas today, we will be left buying in from abroad.
When imported energy is prohibitively expensive, investing in renewables and other energy saving technologies offers the “double whammy” of creating new jobs and reducing the national debt. When New Labour was pumping money into the banks… it should have been into renewables instead. It could have launched a program to install double glazing at heavily discounted rates, or free solar panels – creating thousands of proper skilled jobs and saving the country billions of pounds for decades into the future.
On a final note… why isn’t a company with the expertise and resources of BAE Systems NOT developing wind turbines? Let the War on Climate Change start today by shifting budgets away from killing people to saving the planet.
Come on UK.. “Get with the program”