Great Britain presented Wednesday a project to overhaul its energy policy focused on securing its supplies and the fight against global warming which is based on the construction of nuclear power plants and energy savings.
Britain's oil and gas fields in the North Sea are on the verge of depletion and the country did not fail to notice last year the reduction in the supply of Russian gas, which accounts for 40% of consumption in Europe. .
Britain also wants to meet its targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, one of the gases responsible for the greenhouse effect.
"If nuclear power is ruled out there is every chance that it will be replaced by gas and coal which, of course, emit carbon dioxide," Trade and Industry Minister Alistair Darling told parliament. , by presenting its White Paper on Energy.
"It seems obvious to me that it is important to have a diversified energy supply (...) and not to become too dependent on imported gas. It is bad for the environment but it is also very worrying for the security of the energy supply in the future. "
The minister stressed that these new measures would prevent up to 33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020, the equivalent of the emissions produced by all road vehicles in the country.
The government wants to triple the amount of electricity produced from renewable sources and increase energy efficiency.
CONSULT THE OPINION
The European Union wants to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and a bill currently before the British parliament sets the country the goal of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050.
But Blair and many of his ministers believe that the country must acquire a new generation of nuclear power plants in order to continue producing the 20% electricity that its aging plants provide.
The White Paper on Energy outlines all possible options for supply and expresses the government's preference for nuclear energy, much to the chagrin of environmentalists.
The government, which was criticized this month for not having sufficiently consulted opinion on the nuclear issue, will also have to launch a consultation process on Wednesday which should last several months.
But there is an emergency. All but one UK nuclear power plant will have to shut down by 2023 and even the most optimistic nuclear proponents agree that it will take at least ten years to build a new plant.
Darling said a decision to build power plants needs to be made this year. While he assured that these projects would not be financed with public money, there is no guarantee for the moment that private funds will be available for such projects, initially very greedy in capital and without guaranteed return on investment.
The White Paper on Energy also promotes research into ways of capturing and storing carbon dioxide, which could generate significant export revenues to countries such as China and India, in the midst of an economic boom. and endowed with significant coal reserves.
He advocates energy savings within companies, increased investment in the development of renewable energies such as wind and wave power, increased trade in carbon dioxide emission rights. , greater energy efficiency and the micro-generation of electricity by solar panels placed on the roofs and wind turbines.
source: yahoo news