It is easy to call for dramatic change; it's harder to deliver it. Even those of us at Greenpeace who are eternal optimists recognise that change can be tough to achieve. Just because it's difficult doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. If we are to prevent the effects of catastrophic climate change we are going to need big measures and bold leadership from our politicians.
The problem is that in this country we are simply not doing anything like enough! I have been looking into what the rest of Europe is doing to wean itself off fossil fuels and comparing it to what is happening here. All very depressing - but enough to say that the UK is languishing at the bottom of the pile for renewable energy (just 1.75 per cent if you are interested) compared to an EU average of 7 per cent. In Germany they are predicting they will get 8 per cent of their final energy from renewables next year.
But this is nothing to the ambition of New Zealand. According to WattHead (via a Bloomberg story) the home of the All Blacks is planning to ban new coal or gas fired power stations. Ban them. Completely! They will be no more. They will be cease to be. New Zealand already gets something like 70 per cent of their electricity from renewables, and they want that proportion to rise to 90 per cent.
Now clearly you can't make a direct comparison between New Zealand and the UK; but this shows what a government can do if it really wants and really commits to fighting global warming.
Meanwhile, here in the UK we are actively considering new coal-fired power stations (like the E.On application in Kingsnorth in Kent). We have a target for renewable energy (20 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020) but so far the government has given little indication of how we might reach it. If they let these new coal stations go ahead, there is little chance they ever will.
It is time for real ambition from the government, the power companies, and companies which use the energy. We must not let them wriggle out of their commitment to the EU target.
