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Trying to tackle the huge challenge with policies that contradict each other and silly spin makes a tough job unnecessarily harder No one thinks it will be easy to slash the carbon emissions driving climate change while keeping the lights on and at an affordable price. But trying to tackle the challenge with policies that contradict each other and silly spin makes a tough job unnecessarily harder. Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, launched a good report on Friday, suggesting the damage wrought on the UK's economy by spikes in global oil, gas and coal prices could be reduced by over half in 2050 as a result of climate change policies. "Only last year, the impact of the Arab spring on wholesale gas prices, pushed up UK household bills by 20%," he said. "Every step the UK takes towards building a low-carbon economy reduces our dependency on fossil fuels, and on volatile global energy prices." "The more we can shift to alternative fuels, and use energy efficiently, the more we can ensure that our economy does not become hostage to far-flung events and to the volatility of market forces," he added. So far, so sensible. But what about the impact of far-flung events on the UK's faltering ambition to build new nuclear power stations? Well, that's a completely different story, apparently. Energy minister Charles Hendry was asked exactly that on Tuesday by MPs. Being exposed to events abroad, such as the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and the election of nuclear-power-sceptic François Hollande in France, was "inevitable", said Hendry. "If we want to see nuclear power as part of the energy mix, that's a challenge we |
