BRITAIN

Primarily through wind power, the British government aims to be a leader in Europe in reducing CO2 emissions. Unless greenhouse gases are controlled, Britain faces an Arctic climate this century due to the loss of warm waters from the Gulf Stream.*  Early October 2008, a new “Energy & Climate” cabinet position was created to focus on climate change. 
In 2000, the proportion of the UK’s electricity supplied from renewable sources stood at 2.7%. By 2009 it was just 6.7%, well short of the department’s target to generate 10% by the end of 2010.’ 

The Guardian newspaper has an excellent, exhaustive web site devoted to the issues – links at bottom

Recent news:

Feb. 1 2012: Analysis for new nuclear fleet was corrupted. A new report (pdf) claims that parliament was misled over the need to build a new fleet of nuclear power stations, distorting evidence and presenting to MPs a false summary of the analysis they had commissioned. If MPs had been presented with an accurate picture of the evidence for and against new reactors, the government's plans might have been challenged, according to the report. Both the previous Labour government and the current coalition overstated the evidence that new nuclear power was needed, it also alleged. link

Nov. 23 2011: Shale gas push would wreck UK's climate change targets. As in the U.S., shale gas obtained through fracking, is viewed as an energy solution. But burning it for fuel results in large-scale CO2 emissions, and in a report commissioned by the Cooperative Group, scientists warned that exploiting even a minor proportion of this gas would generate so much carbon dioxide that the government's greenhouse gas emissions targets would be rendered unreachable. Exploiting even one-fifth of the Lancashire shale gas reserves alone would produce about 15% of the total CO2 that the UK can produce between now and 2050, if government targets are to be adhered to. Those targets state that CO2 emissions are to be cut by 80% by 2050. link

May 2011: Britain's Green Investment Bank.  link
May 2011: Government confirms drastic cuts in emissions to proceed.  link
March 2011: Climate change 'will wreak havoc on Britain's coastline by 2050’.   link
January 2011: Britain unveils plans to ready for future climate changes.  link  

              ______________________________________

        Below:

• Britain's CO2 emissions - two views
• Wind & solar power in Britain
• Scotland
• England
• Wales
• Problems of nuclear industry
• Coal and Carbon Capture challenges
• Other energy reduction initiatives

While statistics show that Britain’s emissions are declining, down anywhere from 15% to 21% between 1990 and 2009, if imports of manufactured goods for the British market are included, there has been an actual increase of about 12% according to Professor Robert Watson, the UK government’s chief environmental scientist. link  [Under the Kyoto Protocol, Britain must reduce its greenhouse gas output to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2012.]  

February  2010: Britain's emissions total.  According to Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, the country’s basket of six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol was estimated to be at 628.3 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e).  The figure is 1.9% lower than 640.5 million metric tons registered in 2007’s. The overall decrease was largely attributed to the country’s continued switch from coal to natural gas. Britain’s industries slashed the largest amount of emissions at 7.3%. This was followed by transportation (3%), energy supply (2.9%) and businesses (2.6%). But residential sector emission rose 3.1%. Of all the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide accounted for 85% of  Britain’s total emissions. Net emission of the gas was estimated at 532.8 million metric tons in 2008 - 2% lower than 543.6 million metric tons in 2007. link

Britain's Committee on Climate Change   In its new progress report, the Committee on Climate Change shows that carbon emissions in the UK fell between 2003-2007 by only 0.6% a year. They should soon be falling, the committee says, by 2.6%. Even this annual target, which would require a very sharp shift in government policy, bears no relation to the ultimate aim: preventing more than 2C of warming. But as David MacKay, chief scientist at the Department of Energy and Climate Change has pointed out; even the cuts the UK has made so far are illusory. link  On December 2010, the Committee on Climate Change called  for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030. If passed into law as previous CCC targets have been, they would be the first legally binding 2030 target in the world. link

July 2011: UK sails ahead in offshore wind power generation. The UK has sailed ahead in offshore wind power generation in the first six months of 2011, building more offshore wind farms than any other country in the world, and accounting for almost all of the turbines erected in European waters this year. Of only 108 offshore turbines built around Europe's coastline from January to June, a whopping 101 were built around the UK. . link

January 2011: The UK has cemented its position as the world's largest offshore wind producer with 1,341MW of installed capacity, almost half of Europe's total capacity.  link
By the close of 2009, the UK ranked 8th in the world for installed wind capacity with an output of 4,092MW, of which 688MW came from off-shore farms. pdf  The UK is considered to be one of the most wind-rich nations in Europe.  As of January 2009, wind turbines in the UK had the capacity to prevent the emission of 3.68 million tonnes of CO2 per annum. The government requires that 35-45% of electricity will have to come from green sources by 2020. The lion's share of these renewables will have to be wind, some 33GW of capacity, delivering over £60 billion of investment and creating 160,000 green collar jobs  [A modern 2.5MW turbine at a reasonable site will generate enough electricity to meet the annual needs of over 1,400 households.]  link

September 2010: Wind power is now a core element of Britain’s energy. In addition to its 5GW of wind energy now in operation, the UK has nearly 18 GW of wind capacity either consented, in construction or in the planning system, according to RenewableUK. link   The world's largest offshore wind farm, which cost over $750 to build and producing 300MW of electricity, is poised to open off the Kent coast with 100 turbines producing enough electricity for 200,000 homes. It will remain the largest until the 340 turbine London Array is completed. link    

[In 2007, just 2% of the UK's energy came from wind power, compared with 29% in Denmark, 20% in Spain and 15% in Germany.  In September 2010 about 10% would have been met by wind power link .]

September 2011: Scotland leads race to cut UK emissions. Scotland has surpassed England, Wales and Northern Ireland at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, according to new statistics that show the country has slashed emissions by almost a third since 1990. Figures just published show that in 2009 Scotland had cut emissions by 30.5% against 1990 levels, narrowly beating England, which delivered a 29.5% cut in emissions, and also leading Wales and Northern Ireland, which cut emissions 23.3%and 20.3%, respectively.  link

September 2010: Scotland should produce enough renewable electricity to meet all its power demand by 2025. The new national target is to generate 80% of electricity from renewables by 2020, and First Minister, Alex Salmond said, "I'm confident that by 2025 we will produce at least 100% of our electricity from renewables alone."  link  [Scottish ministers are aiming for 50% of electricity demand to be met by renewable energy by the year 2020, with an interim target of 31% by 2011, and recent reports suggests that they are running ahead of schedule.  link ]

March 2011: Scotland’s government gives green light to world’s largest tidal stream energy array. The development to be built in the Sound of Islay is estimated to have a generating capacity of 10MW and will generate enough green energy to power double the number of homes on Islay. link

In May 2009, Europe's largest onshore wind farm began operating. (below Eaglesham Moor, Scottland 140 Wind Turbines covering 55Km) The 322 MW farm, which is already powerful enough to meet Glasgow's electricity needs, is to expand by more than a third as part of a major green energy initiative by Scottish ministers. The announcement came as plans for an even larger scheme, to build a vast community-owned 150 turbine, 540MW scheme on Shetland, were lodged with the Scottish government. Scotland has the theoretical potential to generate 60 gigawatts of green energy, ten times the country's peak demand, because of its geographical position. link     [More on the Shetlands wind project: link]  

September 2009: Boost for green jobs. The energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, today announced a boost for green jobs including government funding for a new factory in the north-east, which will make the largest offshore windblades in the world. Miliband used a speech in Liverpool to unveil a £4.4m grant to Clipper Windpower to develop offshore wind turbines, with blades 70m long and weighing over 30 tonnes, "the size of a jumbo jet". "With strong government backing, the UK is consolidating its lead in offshore wind energy. We already have more offshore wind energy than any other country, we have the biggest wind farm in the world about to start construction, and now we'll see the biggest turbine blades in the world made here in Britain," Miliband said. link

May 2009: Wales plans for energy self-sufficiency with renewables in 20 years.   The government development plans, which are legally binding, are far in advance of anything planned for England or Scotland. The proposals would make Wales one of only three countries in the world legally bound to develop "sustainability".  link     

September  2010: Wales to invest $64.8bn in renewable energy over the next 15 years. The Welsh government believes the energy and environment sector will be crucial to economic recovery and job growth. link  

Nuclear power in the United Kingdom generates a fifth of the country's electricity (19.26% in 2004)  at 19 reactors at 9 locations. Begun in 1956, nuclear energy reached its peak of 26% of the nation's electricity in 1997, and by 2023 only one of the current fleet of reactors will remain open.  [November 2009: The government has approved 10 sites in England and Wales for new nuclear power stations, most of them in locations where there are already plants. link]

The BBC reported that it will take over 100 years before the toxic nuclear reprocessing site at Sellafield (formerly Windscale) is safe. A spokesman for Sellafield Ltd said: "Sellafield isn't a place that can just be closed down. It is about the removal of plant and equipment from the building, it is about decontaminating and knocking them down, that takes decades.  It has been estimated that it will cost £73 bn ($136 bn) to decommission all nuclear civilian facilities in the UK. link  

November 2011: Prospect of new UK nuclear power plants undermined. The cost of feeding the north of Scotland's renewable energy into the national power grid could fall by 80% under the proposals. A study carried out suggested the change would boost the case for building wind and marine turbines in and around Scotland. Sharing the costs equally across the UK would remove the financial incentives to build any new nuclear power stations, and shift a projected £17bn of nuclear investment to other technologies. link

May 9 2011: Sellafield’s Mox problems aggravated by Japan’s disaster. Mox fuel is made by mixing plutonium dioxide retrieved from spent fuel rods with uranium oxide. The promise of lucrative Japanese contracts for Mox fuel was the primary reason the Sellafield Mox plant was finally licensed in 2001 after years of legal wrangling. However, since it was given its operating licence by the previous government, the Mox Plant has been beset by problems. Instead of producing 120 tonnes of fuel a year, it has managed just over 13 tonnes in eight years, at a total cost to the taxpayer of £1.34bn – and a further £800m in future running costs expected this decade. The fuel was intended to be shipped to Hamaoka in Japan which has been described as the world's most dangerous nuclear power facility because it sits on two geological faults.This plant may probably be shut down. Meanwhile, the severe production problems at the Sellafield Mox Plant have meant that the first fuel shipments would not be delivered until at least the end of the decade, more than 10 years behind schedule. The Mox plant, which has been described as one of the biggest disasters in Britain's industrial history. link

May 2009: Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant to close. Sellafield Ltd, the company that runs Thorp, admitted that it may have to close for several years owing to a series of technical problems. The huge £1.8bn plant imports spent nuclear fuel from around the world and returns it to countries as new reactor fuel. But a series of catastrophic technical failures with associated equipment means Thorp could be mothballed at a cost of millions of pounds. Under orders from the government's safety watchdog, the plant's operators are expected to have little option but to mothball the reprocessing plant for at least four years. Closure of Thorp for any length of time could cost the company and government hundreds of millions of pounds and embarrass the resurgent nuclear industry, which is embarking on an ambitious programme of new reactors for Britain. link

Over the past 60 years, coal’s share of total UK energy supply has fallen from 90%in 1948, to 50% in 1968. Of the coal used in the UK in 2009, 81.3% was for electricity generation; this contributed 27.7% of all UK electricity supplies. link

Britain has long been dependent upon coal mining as an industry. Since the 1970s the industry declined to where now 75% of coal is imported. In April 2009, the government gave the go-ahead for a new generation of coal-fired power plants - but only if they can prove they can reduce their emissions. Up to four new plants will be built if they are fitted with technology to trap and store CO2 emissions underground. The technology is not yet proven and would only initially apply to 25% of power stations' output.  In 2008 coal power stations provided 31% of the UK's electricity but a third of them are due to close in the next ten years. link    Nov. 9 2009: UK carbon capture 'dead on its feet' says expert, with only one of the three projects in the running capable of delivering a full scale working demonstration plant by the 2014 deadline. link    October 20 2010: E.On UK withdraws its Kingsnorth project from the competition saying it is uneconomic. link  Scottish Power's Longannet project in Fife was the only entrant in the government's CCS competition. That plan collapsed October 2011 when the project was cancelled (see CCS page for more).      

July 2009:  Britain's Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has unveiled 19 ideas which could transform the UK into a sustainable society. SDC's "Breakthroughs for the 21st century" project sets out to identify the ideas which could make the biggest impact on Britain's efforts to tackle climate change, resource depletion and inequality. Titled Time to raise our game: 19 ways to make the UK more sustainable, of almost 300 ideas submitted by the public, businesses, academics, and sustainability professionals, 19 were selected by SDC Commissioners as potential breakthroughs.

June 2010:  Feed-in tariffs expected to trigger a five-fold increase in demand for photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. This could deliver 1GW of installed solar capacity by 2015, marking a 30-fold increase on its current size. The UK had just 32MW of solar energy installed at the end of 2009, representing only 0.3% of the total renewable energy in the country.  link

Zero Carbon Britain: Academics in Britain have come together under the banner ‘Zero Carbon Britain’ to map out how fossil fuels could be eliminated within 20 years without resource to nuclear power. An updated report (June 2010) report that shows how Britain could eliminate emissions by 2030 link  
                    

Bicycle scheme for London:  London's mayor, Boris Johnson, announced (April 2009) that Londoners will soon be able to hire bikes in the centre of town for short journeys. link  Similar schemes already operate in Paris, and other European cities are showing interest. link to scheme

Recycling breakthrough. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) says recycling in 2006 saved 18 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking five million cars off the road. In Leicestershire, Biffa (an integrated waste management business) is building a system for turning rubbish into electricity; anything organic in the city's rubbish - old pizza boxes, food scraps, dirty paper - gets pulverized in a deafening, dark and smelly hall.  link

We highly recommend the Guardian Environment web page: link 
Also recommended is the BBC’s Green Room:  link