This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Avatar photo

Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

19th July 2011

Green Energy

Our growing electricity needs, and the way we waste our energy, are one of the principal clauses of global warming in the world. All governments are grappling with the problem of rising demand and the contradictory need to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Bolivia is not immune.

The British government recently published an Electricity Market Reform White Paper and Renewable Energy Roadmap. The starting point was the need to attract new investment into a wider range of energy sources – nuclear, renewable, and gas and coal carbon capture technologies – as the UK plans to shut down over 20 large and polluting old technology power stations over the next 10 years. Household energy bills will rise, but British energy use will become more efficient, cleaner, and less wasteful.

30% of British energy use will come from renewable sources by 2020, up from 7% today, to meet strict European targets. The Roadmap sees wind power, biomass and heat pumps as the renewable energy sources with the highest potential (Britain is already the world’s largest market for offshore wind power). The targets are ambitious, but my government believes that if we are to argue for high ambition in the global climate change negotiations, we must be able to show that we are playing our part.

About Nigel Baker

Nigel was British Ambassador to the Holy See from 2011-2016. He presented his Credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011, after serving 8 years in Latin America, as…

Nigel was British Ambassador to the Holy See from 2011-2016. He presented his Credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011, after serving 8 years in Latin America, as Deputy Head of Mission in the British Embassy in Havana, Cuba (2003-6) and then as British Ambassador in La Paz, Bolivia (2007-11). In July 2016, Nigel finished his posting, and is currently back in London.

As the first British Ambassador to the Holy See ever to have a blog, Nigel provided a regular window on what the Embassy and the Ambassador does. The blogs covered a wide range of issues, from Royal and Ministerial visits to Diplomacy and Faith, freedom of religion, human trafficking and climate change.

More on Nigel’s career

Nigel was based in London between 1998 and 2003. He spent two years on European Union issues (for the UK 1998 EU Presidency and on European Security and Defence questions), before crossing St James’s Park to work for three years as The Assistant Private Secretary to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. At St James’s Palace, Nigel worked on international issues, including the management of The Prince of Wales’s overseas visits and tours, on the Commonwealth, interfaith issues, the arts and international development.

Nigel spent much of the early part of his FCO career in Central Europe, after an initial stint as Desk Officer for the Maghreb countries in the Near East and North Africa department (1990-91). Between 1992 and 1996, Nigel served in the British embassies in Prague and Bratislava, the latter being created in 1993 after the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia into the separate Czech and Slovak Republics.

Nigel joined the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) in September 1989. Between 1996 and 1998 he took a two year academic sabbatical to research and write about themes in 18th century European history, being based in Verona but also researching in Cambridge, Paris and Naples. The research followed from Nigel’s time as a student at Cambridge (1985-88) where he read history and was awarded a First Class Honours degree, followed by his MA in 1992.

Before joining the Foreign Office, Nigel worked briefly for the Conservative Research Department in London at the time of the 1989 European election campaign.

Nigel married Alexandra (Sasha) in 1997. They have one son, Benjamin, born in Bolivia in September 2008.

Follow Nigel

Tags

electricity energy Politics

Links