The UK government’s response to climate change and the impending energy crisis, as presented in its 2003 Energy White Paper, has not yielded concrete results despite many good intentions. We believe that is because the government’s trade- and market-dominated approach has prevented it from investing sufficiently in the appropriate technologies and adopting policies that promote self-sufficiency over trade.
The Energy Review released for public consultation in January 2006 is widely seen as a statement of the UK government’s intention to commission new nuclear plants, an option explicitly not included in the 2003 Energy White Paper.
Our recommendations – based on the options considered in this Energy Report – are as follows.

  1. Nuclear energy should be ruled out on grounds of safety, world security, and economics; also because it is a finite, non-renewable resource, and it gives energy returns and savings on carbon emissions no better than gas-fired heat and power co-generation.
  2. Energy self-sufficiency is the best guarantee of energy security. This can be achieved by a diversity of sustainable, renewable energies at medium-, small- and micro-generation scales, according to resources locally available, so that energy is used at the point of generation, saving up to 69 percent of the energy lost through long distance transport of electricity from big centralised power plants and the associated carbon missions.
  3. The electricity grid should be restructured for all levels of embedded local generation that would enable neighbouring communities to supply electricity to one another in times of need (through electronic switching devices), thereby maximising stability of electricity supply throughout the grid. This distributed network is also the best protection against blackouts and terrorist attacks.
  4. Food self-sufficiency should be considered an integral art of energy self-sufficiency, as it reduces food miles and ecological footprints, saving on both energy and carbon emissions. Food produced locally and consumed fresh enhances its quality and nutritional value, and improves the health of the nation.
  5. Organic, low input sustainable farming should be encouragedas an effective way to reduce fossil-fuel intensive fertiliser and pesticide inputs and carbon emissions.
  6. The renewable options adopted must be sustainable. In the present context, we define sustainable as being safe for health and biodiversity, affordable, ethical, energy efficient, as near as possible to ‘zero-emission’ and ‘zero-waste’; and above all, does not compromise the world’s food security.
  7. Two energy-from-waste technologies ideally satisfy the criteria for renewables that are sustainable: producing biogas from organic wastes (agricultural, municipal and industrial), and using green algae for capturing carbon dioxide from the exhaust of power plants coupled with biodiesel production.
  8. Solar energy is getting better and more affordable all the time, and will be an important small- to micro-generation technology especially suited for Third World countries lacking energy infrastructure.
  9. The production of biodiesel from waste cooking oils and other industrial food wastes, and diesel from waste plastics that cannot be easily recycled into plastics should all be considered.
  10. We do not support energy crops for biofuels, especially not in poor Third World countries, unless they can be shown to truly satisfy our criteria of sustainability. Biofuels from most existing energy crops give poor to negative energy returns and small savings, if any, on carbon emissions. They are damaging to theenvironment and will accelerate global warming if primary and secondary forests are converted to energy crop plantations, as they are likely to be in Latin America. Most of all, they compromise food security in ompeting for land with food crops, and can push up the price of food.
  11. We do not recommend investing in physical and hemical
    carbon capture and storage technologies.
  12. We do not support energy intensive extractive technologies as they merely extend our dependence on fossil fuels and divert scarce resources away from developing sustainable renewable energy sources.
  13. An integrated food and energy self-sufficient farming system should be widely implemented in developing as well as developed countries, as a cost effective and sustainable solution to global warming and the energy crisis.
  14. Subsidies and tax incentives should be used to support the appropriate options, and over a long time scale.
  15. Carbon credits should be extended to include small and
    medium enterprises engaged in carbon savings, such as the production of biogas from organic wastes on farms.
  16. Special subsidies and grants for research and development should be earmarked for small to medium enterprises, non-government organisations and individuals, because these are responsible for most of the innovations in renewable energies.
  17. Legislation to promote savings on energy and carbon emissions should be put in place and enforced through inspection of buildings, for example.
  18. There is an urgent need to remove bureaucratic hurdles from individuals, small to medium enterprises, and non-government organisations setting up innovative, energy and carbon emissions savings projects.

by Mae-Wan Ho, in “Which Energy?”

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