Memorandum submitted by Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a global campaigning organisation
which has as its main object the protection of the natural environment.
Greenpeace has regional offices in 40 countries, 2.8 million
supporters worldwide and around 150,000 in the UK. It is
independent of governments and businesses, being funded entirely
by individual subscriptions.
Greenpeace was one of the first organisations
to campaign for action to be taken to halt anthropogenic climate
change. It has built up considerable expertise and has access
to independent expertise on the links between energy use and climate
change including scientific and economic analysis and the dynamics
of energy and electricity markets.
We would like to make five points.
1. The Government Green Stimulus package has
not been adequate. At the beginning of the year we were concerned
about the actual size of the Government's green stimulus, and
we worked with New Economics Foundation to establish the real
size of it. Prior to the budget the new and additional money amounted
to just £120 million, only 0.6% of the stimulus package.[42]
More money has been made available for green measures in the recent
2009 Budget, amounting to approximately £1.4 billion.
Although we have not repeated the analysis, compared with £20 billion
stimulus package this remains, at best, at 7%, well below the
20% recommended by Grantham Institute or the 50% recommended by
E3G.
2. Low Carbon Technologies must include Offshore
wind—a particularly strong opportunity for green industrial
development in UK. Our report with ippr[43]
identified that the expected major expansion of offshore wind
would create between 23,000 and 70,000 jobs in UK with
much of the variation being a function of Government policy and
political support. This report researched, through interviews
with industrial players in other countries where renewable commercialisation
has been successful, what a strategy for making UK a leader in
the offshore wind would look like. It concluded that to be a leading
player and to secure green jobs in UK we need to:
— secure the domestic market through ensuring
sufficient financial support, straightforward planning and ensuring
grid connections;
— engage in "industrial activism"
in support of industry by providing tax and financial incentives,
infrastructure like ports and test facilities, financial guarantees
and preferences for local sourcing;
— create a skills strategy following a
proper analysis of the skills "gap" for the proposed
expansion, which should include attracting a new workforce into
the sector.
3. Further, Britain has a unique potential role
in the development of marine renewables such as wave and tidal
stream. Currently we lead the world in both these technologies
but notably the first commercial wave farm was sited in Portuguese
water. Our leadership in full commercialisation cannot be guaranteed
at present and it is almost certain that a strategy for marine
renewables generally would look similar to that outlined above
for offshore wind. Although there are some encouraging signs,
we are not yet delivering enough on both the skills and 'activism'
side.
4. The starting point for a low carbon world
has to be energy efficiency. In the current economic climate there
is considerable opportunity to kick-start building efficiency.
The report Greenpeace commissioned from Impetus Consulting[44]
illustrates the huge potential for this, with the evidence suggesting
that 8-14 person-years of employment would be created in
UK for every €1million invested, with a further 9-40 person
years created indirectly. The advantages of energy efficiency
investment are that:
— it creates jobs in the UK as efficiency
work has to be done locally
— low levels of employment in the building
sector mean the market is not tight
— jobs can be created relatively quickly
— reducing fuel bills of people and companies
effectively provides a "fiscal stimulus" every year.
— as UK imports more of its gas it contributes
positively to balance of payments.
Delivery of energy efficiency requires a better
range of incentives to the individual householder—for example
tax rebates and upfront low interest loans—and public sector
leadership—for example through large public sector buildings
acting as an "anchor" heat load for the deployment of
CHP, or by creating markets for energy efficiency retro-fit.
5. These above points outline some real opportunities
for UK in a green low-carbon economy. In our view there are also
some poor prospects that are being discussed; for example, Carbon
Capture and Storage (CCS). We are concerned that development of
CCS here in UK should not impede opportunities in renewable energy
because:
— They represent the long term solution.
Not generating the CO2 in the first place is better
than having to sequester it afterwards.
— We are concerned that taxpayer support
for CCS coal on the scale required for coal to make a significant
contribution to diversity in the power sector could conflict with
not only financial support for renewables, but also system access
and market performance.
— Especially with offshore wind and marine
renewables, the potential for UK leadership are great—arguably
greater than with CCS (where Norway, Germany, the US and China
are very active)—it would be better to concentrate more
effort on where we can play a genuine global leadership role.
May 2009
42 http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_PublicationDetail.aspx?pid=285 Back
43
http://www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=658 Back
44
www.greenpeace.org.uk/efficiencyandjobs Back
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