Back To Reality: UK Puts Climate Change On Back Burner

Britain's carbon emissions grew faster than the economy last year for the first time since 1996, as a cash-strapped population relegated the environment down its league of concerns and spent more money keeping warm, according to a new report. The rise in Britain's so-called carbon intensity increases the danger that the country will miss legally binding targets on reducing emissions, warns PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the consultancy behind the report. –Tom Bowden, The Independent, 7 November 2011

---

A RADICAL shift in policy on climate change is to be outlined by the Irish Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan today, when he announces that a climate change Bill is not a priority. It signals a major change from the policy of his predecessor John Gormley, who rushed to publish legislation setting binding statutory targets for emissions reductions in the weeks before the previous government collapsed last January. In another departure that will be seen as controversial, he said he would not set sectoral targets for emissions reductions as he did not subscribe to them. This is likely to attract criticism from environmental organisations and opposition parties. --Harry McGee, Irish Times, 3 November 2011 The government could save each member of the population almost £550 by 2020 if it scraps expensive wind energy plans in favour of cheaper nuclear and gas-fired power plants. A controversial report by KPMG, the accountants and adviser on government energy policy, will this week say that Britain can reach the 2020 target on reducing pollution imposed by the European Union for a third less than predicted, a potential saving of £34 billion. To do so, says the report, entitled Thinking About the Affordable, the proportion of wind power envisaged in the current plan would need to be slashed and the energy shortfall made up by new gas-powered stations and nuclear reactors. Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2011

---

---

A FIRST licence for the controversial gas drilling technique known as fracking has been granted in Scotland – with more likely to follow. -- Jennifer Fyall, Scotland on Sunday, 6 November 2011 Many of the Western democracies are likely to become major oil and gas producers, helping to glut the world and collapse energy prices. And today’s energy-rich countries, most having undiversified economies, will then lose the lion’s share of their revenues and become neutered politically. --Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, 5 November 2011 Climate Change Minister Greg Barker this morning told an audience of local councillors that it was "morally wrong" that the feed-in tariff scheme was offering such large returns when it is funded by a levy on everyone's energy bills. --James Murray, BusinessGreen, 2 November 2011

---