Home

UK opposition leader David Cameron today launched a green paper setting out the Conservative Party’s plan for a low carbon economy.

The plans hinge on updating the country’s national grid into a smart ‘internet-like’ electricity network and introducing smart meters for homes.

Together with a system of feed-in tariffs, as the current Government has already committed to introducing, the smart grid would encourage an expansion of both microgeneration and large-scale renewables.

The expansion of renewable energy sources will focus mainly on offshore wind and marine, with the plans including the construction of a new network of under-sea.

The Conservative plans also promise a new focus on biogas – methane produced from farm and food waste – to feed into the gas grid and for community heating schemes.

More traditional energy generation technologies also get the nod, however. The plans pledge to add carbon capture and storage to at least 5000 MW of new coal-fired power plants and clear the way for new nuclear power.

Setting up a smart grid would also go hand-in-hand with developing a national recharging network to enable a move towards electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The third runway at Heathrow would be unnecessary, claims the document, if a high speed network connecting the north and south of the country.

In the short term, the Conservatives would focus on reducing emissions from housing, buildings and electronic goods.

Last year the Conservatives mooted the idea of a scheme whereby employers could sponsor energy efficiency improvements to employees homes and gain carbon reduction credits by doing so.

In addition to this plan, the document also suggest introducing an entitlement for every homes to be fitted with up to £6500 worth of energy efficiency improvements that would be paid off through fuel bills over a 25 year period.

According to Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary Greg Clark, “What we are proposing today is nothing less than an environmental and energy revolution, which would make Britain a world leader in moves towards creating a low carbon economy.”

In an interview The Guardian newspaper, Cameron said he was “deadly serious” about building a low-carbon economy, which represents a way out of the recession for the UK.

Environmental groups have largely welcomed the plans, although some moves do not go far enough.

“We are pleased that the Conservatives have embraced the need for a radical overhaul of the UK’s energy infrastructure,” commented Friends of the Earth executive director, Andy Atkins. “Their vision and aspiration impresses, and many of their policies are spot on.”

For further information:
www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/01/Our_Plan_for_a_Low_Carbon_Economy.aspx
www.foe.co.uk

Related stories:
UK Conservative Party plan to promote employee energy efficiency (2-Oct)