healthier, happier and richer

USHUAIA, ARGENTINA. Roald Amundsen, growing up in Norway, dreamt of going to the North Pole. Later, when he led the first team to the South Pole, he wrote in his diary, “How topsy turvy is that?”

BEAGLE PASSAGE, ARGENTINA. Today was a perfect day for walking – light cloud and much less wind than yesterday. We set off, straight after breakfast, to walk up to the place where there used to be a glacier.

This month, the UK’s energy regulator, the Office of Gas and Electricity markets, has published Project Discovery. This grandiose title accurately reflects the fact that Ofgem has finally ‘discovered’ that its previous approach – leaving as much as possible to the market – has not worked and will not enable the UK to meet the challenges of climate change and energy security, while also protecting consumers.

The UK has enormous wind potential, and is already the world leader in terms of installed offshore capacity. However, it achieved this with only 688Mw of operational offshore wind farms.

Today, I attended a conference organised by Business for a New Europe and the Centre for European Reform on Is the EU good for business?. The general answers was (unsurprisingly, given the organisers) ‘yes, generally, but could be better’.

On Saturday, I was on a panel at the World Science Festival in New York, with James Hansen of NASA and three others. Hansen’s position on nuclear can be summarised simply: it’s better than coal.

In November 2009, 3% of OECD electricity was generated by renewables other than hydro. 14% came from hydro. And this was only 17% of what electricity was then used, not total energy used.

President Obama has done more to control climate change than President Bush ever did. However, that is hardly setting the bar very high.

Today, EU national governments are meeting to discuss who should be the next President of the Commission. The current president, Jose Manuel Barroso, wants a second term and will probably be given it. This would be good for the climate.

This week, I have been to Brussels for meetings on energy efficiency, renewables, nuclear and CCS. The now-ratified Lisbon Treaty says that there will, in the future, be a common energy policy, but this is unlikely to have much practical impact, but the EU has achieved much in important areas.

On Thursday, I launched a report I wrote for the Centre for European Reform on how the EU should meet its 2020 target that 20% of all energy should be from renewable sources. Meeting the target would help control climate change, greatly increase EU energy security and create many new jobs and industries.

This week, the European Union and Iraq signed an agreement to strengthen their energy cooperation in areas such as natural gas, energy security and renewables.

On Thursday 22 and Friday 23, I went to Clingendael, the Netherlands Institute for International Relations, for a seminar on how to meet the EU 20% renewables target. It certainly felt ironic for an Englishman to be invited to go and tell the Dutch what to do about renewable energy.

At a time when all the talk is of the need for massive cuts in expenditure, in the Budget on 22 April 2009, the UK Government managed to find some extra money to help control climate change.

Angela Merkel’s victory in Germany’s election was not unexpected. What was less clear was who her coalition partner would be, but we now know that it will be the FDP. This party is liberal, in both economic and social senses. It is also very pro-business and in favour of tax cuts and is now arguing for reductions in subsidies.

Yesterday I went to Brussels for a seminar on CCS with Ruud Lubbers, who used to be prime minister of the Netherlands and is now running the Rotterdam Climate Initiative.

The lack of substantial progress at Copenhagen, though not unexpected, has left many people close to despondency on climate change. There is now a serious danger that they will lose interest. More worrying is the danger that the media will lose interest, leading to politicians doing likewise.

For the next six months, Spain holds the Presidency of the EU and, from the start of February, there will be a new European Commission. Spain and Germany lead the EU on wind and solar power, so there are good grounds to hope that the new leadership will result in a major speeding up of the low carbon transition.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I attended a conference on renewable energy in Scotland, on the stunningly beautiful island Skye. I talked about how to dispel myths about climate change and renewables.

The Copenhagen Climate Summit starts today. Prospects are looking better than they were a few weeks ago and the fact that President Obama has decided to attend the final negotiating session, rather than just for a token visit at the start, is excellent.

Scotland has immense potential to expand renewables, particularly wind and the Scottish National Party (SNP), when it took over the Scottish government in 2007, set a target that half of all Scotland’s electricity should come from renewables by 2020.

President Obama’s meeting with the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on 6 May understandably focussed on how to combat the Taliban and control Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

One of Kevin Rudd’s first acts on becoming Australian prime minister was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which his predecessor refused to do. Now, he is trying to introduce a cap-and-trade system to help deliver up to a 25% reduction in Australia’s emissions by 2020. This isn’t enough, but it is certainly better than denying the reality of climate change, as many of his opponents still do.

In my opinion, electric vehicles should be strongly supported. Those concerned about climate change too often take an overly anti-car position.

Germany led the world on wind energy until 2007. In 2008, it was overtaken in terms of total installed capacity, though not percentage of energy coming from wind, by the USA. It remains the world’s top photovoltaic (PV) installer, accounting for almost half of the global market in 2007 – though this generates only about 1% of total electricity used in Germany.

There are several myths or misunderstandings that have grown up surrounding climate change and renewable energy. Both sides of the debate can be at fault. This article tries to debunk some of nonsense that is often cited as fact.

How well have Obama and Energy Secretary Chu done so far on promoting energy efficiency, renewables, CCS and electric vehicles? A very positive assessment is made by the Center for American Progress.

Will it be possible to build all the necessary nuclear power stations in time, what emission savings can be made and will the nuclear industry close them down when and if they are not needed?

Shaun Bernie

People often use the word ‘energy’ when they actually mean electricity. Only 20% of EU energy consumption is electricity (although this will rise as transport becomes increasingly electric.). The rest is for heat and for transport and, therefore, it is essential to expand renewable heat very substantially.

The ANC government has connected 80% of all South Africans to the electricity grid – one of its greatest successes. However, this mass electrification programme, combined with strong economic growth and rapid industrialisation, meant that demand for power outstripped supply in early 2008.

Despite the grim economic context, the UK Government managed to find some extra money to help control climate change.