Fracking is a matter of the most serious environmental concern, but questions remain on its safety
Four days. That’s how long it’s taken the Tories to renege on the promise and principle of Paris COP21. The ink has barely dried on Saturday’s Agreement – an agreement that symbolises a new era of clean energy and carbon limits.
But today, the Government has already hit reverse gear – backtracking on its pledge to protect National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and Sites of Special Scientific Interest from fracking for shale gas.
Posturing is all very well – but the inconvenient truth for the government is that, when you sign an agreement, the public does expect you to abide by it. That stands true for Paris – and it stands true for its pledge on fracking limits.
Earlier this year Labour laid down 11 specific amendments to the Infrastructure Bill. We said there should be no more fracking unless all these safeguards – including for our Water Protection Areas – were put in place. The government conceded.
But in an anti-democratic, downright bewildering U-turn, the government is today using a back door procedure known as a ‘deferred vote’ – whereby no MP is able to speak or debate the issue – to force through a motion to allow fracking under our National Parks.
Their ill-considered – ill-fated – dash to extract every last drop of fossil fuel – even at the risk of our most loved landscapes – shows that the Conservatives believe international treaties are binding on everyone: except them.
Paris has set us on a low-carbon pathway to a new clean, green industrial revolution. It’s urgent we get on track. Moreover, it makes economic, as well as environmental, sense.
Today’s move shows a level of financial incompetence from the Conservatives that is frankly breath-taking. The Government was completely at odds with the world’s business leaders, who gathered for the COP21 Sustainable Innovation Forum.
I spoke with many of them. They’re ready to embrace the enormous benefits offered by a low carbon future and to invest in renewable technologies.
Our government, on the other hand, is cutting subsidy for renewables, scrapping the programme for low carbon homes, pocketing the £1billion grant that was supposed to pioneer Carbon Capture and Storage and locking us into a fossil fuel future that will vastly undermine UK jobs and growth.
The markets are so far ahead of the UK, it’s frightening. The price of oil has dropped by 12 per cent in the past ten days. £124 billion has been wiped of the share value of companies like BP and Shell.This is not the moment to invest in a whole new fossil fuel industry.
Fracking is a matter of the most serious environmental concern; but even for those who believe the technical issues around it can be solved to make it safe, the question remains as to the sense of investing in a fossil fuel technology whose days are so very clearly numbered – even by the Government’s own admission.
Climate action is a matter of fundamental social and environmental justice. That sense was the driving force behind the historic Paris Agreement. The deep sense that more should be done for the poorest communities – paying, as they are, so dearly for a global warming crisis they didn’t cause; a crisis caused by carbon emissions from developed economies that they haven’t even received the benefit of.
But what will power the Paris Agreement forward are the global financial markets. The investors. The business leaders. They’ve seen the writing on the wall for fossils and they’re doing what good business does: adapting.
They’re switching to the technologies of our future, but government is locking us into the past.
32 Responses to “We need investment in renewable energy, but our government is going the other way”
Dave Stewart
That is why most modern installations of solar panels will also include small scale batteries for storage or heat pumps for storage so you can use your generate power later. This is significantly more efficient than selling excess power to the grid as it eliminates many of the transfer losses that occur getting power onto the grid. Also if you combine it with a smart meter it will automatically switch from your battery/solar cells to the grid depending on the demand on the grid at any one time thus helping to smooth out peak demand which is excellent news for the need to have baseline capacity.
Also modern solar cells do not need bright light to function, they will work all year round in the UK even in our gloomy climate, granted the efficiency will fall off a bit in the winter months and the shorter days will have an effect.
Small scale local generation of power (like cells on peoples roofs) really are what we should be investing in. Shale gas should be a non-stater, it’s environmentally damaging and if we are to have any hope of avoiding climatic breakdown we should be leaving as much fossil fuels in the ground as possible. Small scale generation also breaks the control of the energy system from large companies weakening their monopolistic power leaving the majority of the benefits in the hands of local people.
Dave Stewart
I would love to see some evidence for all of you assertions. Regardless of whether you want to accept it or not the world is warming up and the evidence is so ridiculously overwhelmingly saying that the most probable cause is green house gas emissions, primarily CO2.
I will not provide evidence because you can google it yourself and I suspect no matter what I posted you’d suggest some nonsense like it is all a giant conspiracy by climate scientists.
Also fracking is an environmental concern, just ask the people in the US who can set fire to their tap water because of contamination, or the massive increased risks of cancers caused by the release of volatile organic carbons around facking wells.
Mike Stallard
But that is not the plan is it.
We intend, surely, to close down all the “fossil fuel” power stations starting with coal fired ones, which are being closed as we speak and to rely on solar and wind power all the time.
Little batteries! And little fairies in the garden too! We face more closures – aluminium and now steel, later the entire computer network.
Chris Kitcher
Well I think that you are particularly fortunate Mike because the Trussell Trust reports that they are serving close on a million food parcels this year which is almost 5x the amount form 5 years ago.
Coming form Lincolnshire myself the Fens have always “in the world but not of it” and I know of many poor people in the Fens who are far too proud to admit their poverty. So it appearas that the policies of these lunatics are working when in fact all they are causing is misery which they appear to enjoy inflicting.
David Davies
The Water Wars will start by 2050 – probably using sticks and stones.