Energy Note From Europe
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Unlike France, Great Britain muddled along like most of Europe and the U.S. and did not plan for its energy future... or created internal roadblocks for it (see next post).
This from Benny Peiser in the UK:
(5) TONY BLAIR: HOW TO STOP THE LIGHTS GOING OUT IN A DANGEROUS WORLDThe Times, 23 May 2007
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest _contributors/article1826518 .ece Flicking a switch and the lights coming on is something that we take for granted. Yet we should not be lulled into a false sense of security. The assumptions we make about where our energy comes from, and how we use it, simply will not hold true in the future unless we plan for it.
We are already seeing how the way we produce and use energy is affecting the environment, with carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels raising temperatures around the globe. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are 35 per cent higher than before the Industrial Revolution and growing by the year. The Stern report showed that without concerted global action the impact of climate change will be equivalent to a loss in world GDP of at least 5 per cent each year, and potentially as much as 20 per cent.We also face a serious challenge in securing our energy supplies. Britain goes from being 80 per cent self-sufficient to having to import almost all our gas and more than half of our oil by 2020. Increasingly we will be required to look at importing energy from less stable parts of the world, and will be much more exposed to the international energy markets at precisely the same time that emerging economies, such as China and India, are increasing their energy consumption.As if that were not enough, we are now faced with countries such as Russia, who are prepared to use their energy resources as an instrument of policy. Over ten years I have watched energy policy go from being a relatively quiet backwater to something taking on a strategic importance that could be as crucial to our country’s future as defence.We need a policy that conforms to the rising concern about climate change and gives Britain the secure, safe and politically acceptable supplies of energy that our livelihood demands. Energy policy is creating new strategic alliances, and new tensions, in international relations. On top of all of this, we face these challenges at a time when the UK needs to replace a third of our ageing electricity generation capacity in the next 20 years.
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