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Conservative gas security fears exposed as dangerous hot air

Wind turbines under construction

What gives us more energy security? Deploying troops to secure gas pipelines, or building a renewable economy?

Since before their conference in October the Conservative party have been raising fears of energy blackouts in Britain. Greg Clark, Shadow energy minister, even claimed in his party conference speech that 'there must be immediate action to keep the lights on' - a speech which, for dramatic effect, began in a darkened room. The same language was trotted out at a debate about gas security in Westminster we helped organise, when Charles Hendry, Conservative Shadow Minister for Energy, raised the spectre of energy blackouts. He claimed that during the recent cold spell Britain had been ‘down to three days of gas storage' and had ‘reached the situation where we were at risk.'

What's going on here? Well, the thinly veiled subtext behind the Tory line goes like this: Britain is at the mercy of foreign powers - in particular the Russians - who supply us with our gas. It's a pretty strong challenge. But is it right? Read more »

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Third runway grounded? Not quite yet...

The Times website

How the Sunday Times reported the story

'BAA to give up on third runway' ran the headline in this weekend's Sunday Times and with the recent good news about Kingsnorth delay, there was a moment when I thought it was my Christmas and birthday presents rolled in to one. But unpick the details and unfortunately it's not quite the prize it appears to be. Read more »

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Tories will 'definitely' scrap Heathrow's third runway

Passengers queuing at an airport (c) Rose/Greenpeace

Some promising news from the Tory party conference in Manchester, where they've pledged to dump plans for Heathrow's third runway as part of their election campaign package. "We are absolutely firm on our opposition to expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted," shadow transport minister Julian Brazier told the Evening Standard today. "It will definitely be in the manifesto."

It's great to hear their commitment being reaffirmed as it shows how isolated the government is on this issue. But there's a long way to go between promising to include it in the election manifesto, being able to form a government and then actually getting round to reversing the decision. Reports from the conference say that the Heathrow pledge in Theresa Villiers' speech received a polite smattering of applause, but her promise to crackdown on cowboy clampers roused the audience further still. Make of that what you will. Read more »

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Conservative proposals for a low carbon economy - Greenpeace reaction and briefing

Publication Date: 
16 Jan 2009
Body: 

The Conservatives Low Carbon Economy paper published today is focused on three important elements of energy policy, relevant to the politics of the current energy debate. They are:

  1. Energy Security
  2. A policy beyond the EU Emissions Trading Scheme for coal
  3. Kick-starting Renewable Energy

In this briefing we analyse their policies and conclude that, whilst the Tory proposals are not the final word and can be improved, they do put the weakness of the government's position in focus.

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Will the real Ed Miliband please stand up?

Coal power - no thanks!

Ed Miliband demonstrated the confusion at the of the heart of the government's energy and climate change strategies this morning when he refused to rule out new coal plants which don't capture and bury their emissions – just weeks after his own advisers warned there was no future for these power plants.

He attacked Conservative plans for the introduction of green standards for power stations that would rule out the dirtiest coal plants like E.ON's for Kingsnorth, as "knee jerk" and "not thought through". Apparently, he's happy to play party politics with coal and climate change, just days after he called for a people-powered movement on global warming. Hardly the way to inspire action on the most important issue of our time.

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Trains, planes and Tory party policy

Yes!

Greenpeace saying Yes to the new high speed rail link to Europe last November © Rose/Greenpeace

We've been hearing likely sounding noises for a while now but today, the Conservatives have formally announced that they'd say no to a third runway at Heathrow, and yes to a high speed rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds instead.

And so I find myself a bit befuddled to be wholeheartedly agreeing with a Tory party spokesperson, Theresa Villiers. She said:

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Conservative proposal to scrap third runway plans - Greenpeace responds

29 Sep 2008

Reacting to a story in today's Guardian newspaper containing details of a Conservative proposal to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow and instead invest heavily in high speed rail, Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven said:

"This announcement puts real pressure on Gordon Brown and his new transport secretary. The Conservatives have recognised that decisions taken now on high carbon projects like new runways and coal fired power stations will make or break our chances of tackling climate change in the future.

"The true test of their commitment will come when, like the Liberal Democrats, this position is written into their manifesto."

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Here come the Tories to launch their green energy policy

David Cameron launches his new policy on green renewable energy

David Cameron speaking at today's launch of the Conservative's green energy policy © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra

We're used to having some unusual people descending on our offices, but today's visit by David Cameron and several other members of the shadow cabinet is the most leftfield (or should that be rightfield?) visitation for some time. But they were here to launch a new policy that uses many of our own demands for renewable energy, a vital component in the struggle to limit the impacts of climate change.

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Speech by John Sauven at the launch of the Conservative Party's 'Power to the People' policy document

Publication Date: 
6 Dec 2007
Body: 

David Cameron today announced a new policy that would see householders receive a guaranteed premium price for any renewable electricity they generate. 

A new Conservative paper looks to adopt Greenpeace proposals designed to kick-start a local energy revolution by making the costs of installing technologies such as domestic solar power much more affordable, while ensuring householders who generate clean energy get a higher price for the electricity they feed into the grid.

Introducing David Cameron at the launch was John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK.
 

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Tory leader adopts Greenpeace policy proposals, announces renewable energy policy

6 Dec 2007

David Cameron will today visit the Greenpeace direct action warehouse to announce a new policy that would see householders receive a guaranteed premium price for any renewable electricity they generate. 

A new Conservative paper - released today - looks to adopt Greenpeace proposals designed to kick-start a local energy revolution by making the costs of installing technologies such as domestic solar power much more affordable, while ensuring householders who generate clean energy get a higher price for the electricity they feed into the grid.

Greenpeace has led the campaign for the adoption of a 'decentralised energy' system where energy is generated cleanly and close to where it's used, drastically slashing emissions by cutting out waste. Several Greenpeace reports, including one entitled 'Decentralising Power: An Energy Revolution For The 21st Century' called for many of the proposals unveiled today. Now the Tory leader is visiting the organisation's warehouse, where many of Greenpeace's most famous protests were planned, to release a report entitled 'Power to the people - the decentralised energy revolution'. New Conservative polices include:

  • A 'feed-in tariff' for domestic green energy. That means a guaranteed elevated price for electricity from clean technology. In Germany, households with installed renewable systems are able to 'sell' electricity back to the grid at a much higher price than the standard market rate.
  • A reformed planning system making it easier for individuals to install ‘micro-generation' systems by making them a form of 'permitted development'. This will mean that owners of these appliances will not have to go through the full planning approval process before installing such equipment.
  • The green paper promises that further announcements detailing support for large scale renewable schemes such as offshore wind farms, and so-called Combined Heat and Power plants, will follow. A series of announcements will form the Conservatives' complete clean energy policy. Today's proposals are the first to be published.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK said: "We've been pushing this climate change solution for many years so it's very exciting to have a major political party take our ideas and adopt them as policy. But we really want to see this as a government priority, no matter who's in Number Ten. Ken Livingstone has been aggressively pushing decentralised energy for London, now Cameron gets it too. The question is, where's Brown? Guaranteed higher prices for clean electricity have kick-started the green energy revolution in Europe. It's high time Britain joined in."

The new policy will be announced by David Cameron at 2pm today (Thursday) in the Greenpeace direct action warehouse, where many of the organisation's most famous protests were planned. The building is powered by solar panels - just the kind of technology supported in the new Conservative report.

David Cameron is likely to be lobbied by energy dinosaurs to drop these plans. Greenpeace today urged him to stand his ground and develop his plan to include:

Massive improvements in energy efficiency to reduce demand - the quickest, cheapest way to cut emissions.

Ambitious decentralised energy programmes - like the one proposed today - that will cut waste from the energy system and slash emissions.

Massive uptake of large scale renewable energy including wind power (onshore and offshore), wave power, tidal power, solar and sustainably sourced biomass.

Greenpeace has written to Gordon Brown urging his government to embrace the ideas in the organisation's climate change solutions reports and has invited ministers to see decentralised energy in action. Today we are again urging the Prime Minister to adopt this simple climate solution and adopt energy efficiency, decentralised energy and large-scale renewable energy

ENDS

Photo and video available - Greenpeace 0207 865 8255

Decentralising power: an energy revolution for the 21st Century

The Convenient Solution: a short film about the real solution to climate change

Notes:

Guaranteed prices for electricity from renewable generation have been operating in Germany since 2001. The feed-in tariff has led to a massive expansion in the German renewable energy sector. Germany now has 300 times the installed solar capacity of the UK, and has also led to the installation of ten times as much wind power capacity, despite the UK having the best wind resources in Europe. Estimates suggest that the German economy has generated over 250,000 'green collar jobs' under the scheme.

This price would be guaranteed for a number of years, meaning that renewable energy installers would be able to offer packages to UK households which would be far more competitive than had previously been possible. The current grant scheme, known as the 'Low Carbon Buildings Programme' lacks the required resources and is often criticised for its complexity.

Under an EU scheme the UK is expected to provide around 15 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020. The energy sector encompasses heat, transport and electricity, so experts have predicted that in order to hit this target, the UK must produce as much as 40-45 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Currently, the UK is lagging far behind its European competitors when it comes to renewable energy. Only the small island state of Malta produces a smaller percentage of its energy from renewables.