Environment — Page 2

  • Environment

    UK and China – no comparison on energy strategy

    13th April 2012 — Filed under: Environment

    Dave Feickert Dave Feickert

    Such is the consequence of a free market energy policy. Eon and RWE’s decisions to cancel their UK nuclear programmes may not have pulled the plug entirely on plans for new nuclear plant, but they have seriously undermined them.

    It follows hard on the heels of Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear plant, after the near melt-down at Fukushima, Japan. The UK energy companies’ reluctance to build new coal plant, or to embark on refurbishing many existing plant to higher environmental standards, has struck another body blow at Britain’s energy policy – such as it is. Renewables have not made really significant headway, just as energy conservation remains the Cinderella of the Coalition government’s policy approach. All that remains is a second dash for gas and possible shortages of capacity in just a few years’ time.

    The contrast with energy policy developments in China could not be greater, especially with the new sustainable development approach embodied in China’s 12th Five Year Plan. 

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  • Environment

    Carbon capture needs first 5 year jobs plan

    4th April 2012 — Filed under: Environment

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

    It seems the green economy is back. Launching a new competition for the first full scale carbon capture (CCS) project,  DECC has acknowledged that it “represents a major green growth opportunity for the UK”. There are new signs too of government linking energy and industry policy. Its roadmap for “a sustainable CCS industry” aims to ”capture emissions from clusters of power and industrial plants linked together…”.

    The potential for power and industry clusters sharing expensive carbon capture technology is well known in industrial regions like Yorkshire & Humber, Teesside, the East Irish Sea and east coast of Scotland. But, if DECC is really serious about capturing CO2 from steel or chemical plant, its consultation paper fails to say how:

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  • Environment

    Time to act for a new nuclear horizon

    3rd April 2012 — Filed under: Environment

    Mike Clancy Mike Clancy

    Prospect has long argued that nuclear power is an essential part of the energy mix if we are to achieve the twin aims of security of supply and low carbon energy generation within the UK. As the union for professionals employed across the energy sector, we see the construction of a new fleet of nuclear power stations as an opportunity to meet the challenges of low carbon energy generation capacity while providing a massive boost to the economy.

    A new fleet would provide thousands of high-value, highly skilled jobs both within the construction industry and throughout the manufacture and supply chains, as well as for operating staff at sites across the country tasked with running the new plants for the next 60 to 70 years. It would help develop an employment sector with the expertise and ingenuity needed in any shift toward new low-carbon generation, allowing the acquisition of skills that could steer new build in other countries.

    News, therefore, that the two German companies behind Horizon Nuclear Power plan to withdraw from projects to build new plants at Wylfa, North Wales – an £8bn project due to start at the end of 2012 – and Oldbury, South Gloucestershire, came as a blow.

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  • Economics

    Time to tax Elgin’s CO2 leakage

    28th March 2012 — Filed under: Economics, Environment, International

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

    Each day, 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are escaping free to air from the Total Elgin gas  leak in the North Sea.  There’s no carbon tax to be paid on Total’s gas leak, no charge for adding to the UK’s carbon emissions, or reduction in the company’s overall “carbon allowance”. Total claims that the leakage rate is  200,000 cubic metres a day. A cubic meter of  natural gas generates 1.9 kilos of carbon dioxide, so the daily rate is just under 400 tonnes CO2. Total is reported that it did not yet know the capacity of the leaking reservoir, but in a “dream” scenario it could simply “run itself out”. Just like leaving your engine running, then.

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  • Economics

    Are green taxes funding offshore oil and gas exploration?

    23rd March 2012 — Filed under: Economics, Environment

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

    Green taxes are meant to shift the burden of tax away from environmentally damaging activities like CO2 emissions or waste going to landfill, to environmentally good things like renewable energy and tackling fuel poverty. But arguably, the huge inflow of green taxes and levies, worth over £3billion in 2011-12 and more than double that by 2016-17, has made it possible for the Coalition to support a new round of offshore and gas exploration. As we blogged on Budget Day, the Chancellor announced a new £3 billion field allowance for” particularly deep fields with sizeable reserves targeted at the West of Shetland.”

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  • Economics

    Forget the green economy, this was a Budget for oil and gas

    21st March 2012 — Filed under: Economics, Environment

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

    Budget 2012 witnessed the vanishing green economy. First, the Chancellor did not stint his support for fossil fuels, they receive over £3bn in new tax breaks. Second, he was “alert to the costs of renewables”, so no new support there to speak of. Third, a promise to lift the burden of the carbon tax for the largest service sector employers. Finally, green taxes will raise over £4.6bn, but we won’t see much of that spent on tackling fuel poverty or investing in green jobs and skills.

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  • Economics

    Budget 2012 – 5 Green markers

    21st March 2012 — Filed under: Economics, Environment

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

    The fairground noise of pre-Budget publicity has masked a number of shifts in the greenest government ever. Like announcements slipped out over the weekend about new long-term support for fossil fuel power stations. So here are 5 green markers for today’s Budget:

    • No more anti-green rhetoric.
    • Boost support for renewable power industries.
    • Put the £billions in new green taxes to create jobs.
    • Recommit support for 4 carbon capture projects.
    • Tackle our rising carbon emissions.

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  • Economics

    National job creation programme needed to tackle 8m in fuel poverty

    16th March 2012 — Filed under: Economics, Environment

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

     The Hills Review proposes a new measure of fuel poverty exposes the inadequacy of government plans to improve home insulation.  According to the new Low Income/ High Cost (LIHC) index suggested by Professor John Hills,covering both number of people affected and the severity of the problem, 8 million people in England, in 2.7 million households, are in fuel poverty. They facd costs to keep warm that add up to £1.1 billion more than middle or higher income people with typical costs. Yet current government schemes targeting the energy efficiency of homes lived in by people with low incomes will only cut fuel poverty by a tenth by 2016, Hills concludes. 

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  • Environment

    Will Budget 2012 scrap more green policies?

    13th March 2012 — Filed under: Environment

    Philip Pearson Philip Pearson

    The Chancellor’s dictum that environmental regulation is bad for business is gaining hold. In the past few days, the Business Secretary is reported to have lobbied him to scrap the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) in the Budget. The CRC requires 20,000 large service sector employers to take their share of the energy savings.

    Now, a leaked DECC letter to the EU wants it to scrap binding renewables targets when phase 1 ends on 2020. “Renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (should) all be competing freely against each other in the years to come,” DECC argues. Nothing is more likely to deter those who would invest in the new and innovative renewable projects than policy uncertainty.

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  • Environment

    UCU calls for urgent investment in green skills

    12th March 2012 — Filed under: Environment

    Graham Petersen Graham Petersen

    The Business Secretary Vince Cable, now persuaded of an “active” role for government in industrial policy, would do well to pick up the issue of skills for a low carbon economy. There is no obvious green skills plan. Unemployment is at a 17-year high, but as the union-led Green Skills Manifesto argues:

    “The current reliance on a ‘market driven’ approach has not and will not deliver the training and green skills required.”

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