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.