I had a lecture today from the former foreign minister of the Netherlands, Bernard Bot. He’s a Christian democrat, so obviously to the centre-right of politics, and far from an insignificant figure. He was talking on the topic of the widening and deepening of Europe, but touched on energy policy, especially regarding our relations with our eastern neighbours. He seemed genuinely convinced that it won’t be possible to expand renewable generating capacity to a significant level; in short, he seemed to advocate the continued development of oil, gas, and nuclear generating capacity.

Being someone who is immersed in politics, I naturally have good friends in most parties across the political spectrum, and when it comes to matters such as this, they all seem—much as I am—firm in their convictions on renewables and energy policy, with the general consensus being that it isn’t enough and we need to develop nuclear and strengthen links to oil and gas producing regions (ie. Russia). Of course, greens can come up with a dozen arguments as to why this is the wrong approach, but seeing as we like to believe our views are firmly rooted in fact and the rigours of science, what possesses those of other political colours to hold firm to the views they advocate? More importantly, what does this mean for the chances of being able to tackle energy supply and demand issues, and of course, climate change? Unfortunately this question was a little too off topic for me to ask in the Q&A session at the end of his lecture, but it’d be interesting to hear if anyone has any thoughts on the matter.

I blame Russia. Poland has joined the ranks of European states planning to expand nuclear power (Bulgaria is planning to reopen closed stations, Sweden has just reversed a ban on nuclear, and Britain is committing to new stations in England). This is crazy for reasons that all environmentalists will know. They can’t be brought online in time to solve the energy gap from declining fossil fuels; they create insanely hazardous and difficult to store waste; Uranium is a finite resource; and they are far from being carbon neutral (how are they built, how is fuel transported to them &c.). The problem is, they’re a pre-existing technology, that is seen as “tried and tested”. Why’d anyone want to develop the mix of renewables and energy efficiency when you can just build nuclear?

The problem just now, and the reason I blamed Russia at the start of this post, is that at least two of the recent re-commitments to nuclear aren’t motivated by environmental concern, rather they are motivated by a well founded fear of energy security. In the UK, we might feel as if we’re suffering if energy bills go up as a result of instability in supplies. Try Bulgaria, where gas was cut, in midwinter, by the Russia-Ukraine dispute. Thousands of people simply didn’t have heating.

The temptation to run back to the gleaming nuclear future is just too easy to give into. And I’d venture a guess that more states will envisage that future, so long as Europe is reliant on gas, and thus Russia. In the long term, Azerbaijan can’t meet Europe’s gas demand, so while the Nabucco pipeline will diversify supply, we’re still getting our bulk of gas from Russia. The Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines still leave us beholden to Russia, not to mention the potential for widespread environmental damage from these projects, Nord Stream in particular.

In grasping at nuclear, Bulgaria and Poland have almost got the right answer to energy security, but they miss out environmental concerns completely. Yes, we need to have a more diverse energy supply to avoid reliance on one potentially hostile state, but the only solution which can be sustained in the long term is a renewables mix and reducing our demand.

It has to be welcome — to some limited degree at least — that the PM has taken some of the principles of the Green New Deal into his plans for spending his way out of recession, but I think he’s compromised too much.

The ‘Green’ Green New Deal as proposed by the New Economic Foundation calls for a “carbon-army” of people employed to construct the new infrastructure that is needed to convert from fossil-fuel based power generation to renewables. Brown’s new deal is too broad. It only tags investment in measures against climate change on as a part of an overall wider plan. Even within this limited part of the proposal, it doesn’t exactly look to do very much. Investment in environmental technologies includes investment in nuclear power, which I’m guessing will gobble up a fair chunk of the funding. A proper green new deal would give Britain the infrastructure needed to ditch fossil fuels, put the country in a better state to weather the rest of the century, and create far more than just 100,000 jobs. I look forward to hearing more details of this policy, to see if there is actually any hope for it to achieve its ambitions. Somehow I doubt it though.

Image from (nz)dave on Flickr.

North America

The Montreal Gazette is reporting that the Greens of Canada are considering using the courts to have their Party leader, Elizabeth May, included in televised debates for Federal elections. This comes at the same time as the Green Party in the US attempts to have presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney treated as a realistic candidate by the media and the two main parties, and also seeks a viable voter demographic.

Europe

Bulgaria is charging ahead to a brilliant atomic future with the construction of a second nuclear power plant in Belene. The project has strong backing from the European Commission, as part of a move to “low carbon” energy systems.

The European Parliament has supported the introduction of a mandatory organic label for produce sold within the Union. The initiative still has to gain support from the Council of Ministers, and it may be worth hiring a marketing agency before putting out any more radio ads. Have a listen.

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The EP has also supported the EC’s plans to promote development of hydrogen cars, but has called for a network of hydrogen filling stations to be established across Europe.

In Sweden, the Green party, Miljöpartiet, is reconsidering its approach to the EU, with the possibility of dropping a section of their manifesto which calls for Sweden’s withdrawal from the Union. This follows from calls by the leader of Vänsterpartiet for green and left party co-operation in the 2010 general election.

There is a possibility that Serbia may be granted EU candidate status in 2009, if it catches war-crimes suspects and continues reforms.

Europe & Russia

Recent events in Georgia have led European media to widely discuss the possibility of a second Cold War. Café Babel has an interview with Georgi Khaidrava, a former minister in the Georgian government. The Euranet radio partnership also covers the similarities of the present situation to Cold War rhetoric. Euractiv also carries an interview with Andrew Stroehlein, of the International Crisis Group.

Regional News

Turkey

Turkish police are reported to have used oppressive tactics against a legal environmental gathering, Ecotopia.

Sweden

The leader of Vänsterpartiet has called for co-operation between his party and the Greens and Socialdemokraterna (Social Democrats) in the run-up to the 2010 election, with the possibility of an alliance.

Germany

Electricity companies, RWE and E.ON are lobbying the government to cancel its planned phase-out of nuclear power.

Baltic Sea Region

Baltic states have been criticised in a report by WWF for failing to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea.

Global

United Nations climate talks are underway in Accra, Ghana. Friends of the Earth International has warned of flaws in the carbon trading system, and of the risk of land-rights abuses from the inclusion of forests in carbon markets. The UN has stated that “modest progress” has been made in the talks.

And Finally…

An elderly woman is reported to have placed herself on the luggage belt at Stockholm Airport, believing she was correctly checking in to her flight. It is not reported if she was flying Ryanair, in which case, she may have been right.