Sep 21 - Independent, The; London (UK)

By Gordon Brown

As global economic uncertainty underlines the need to combatclimate change and ensure energy security, the UK must position itself for the post-oil era, writes Gordon Brown

Next year in Copenhagen the international community must secure a global and comprehensive UN climate change agreement. Putting the world on a path to the stabilisation of theclimate at no more than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures, with global emissions at least halved by 2050, is an historic mission for our generation. It is a mission of justice - for the poorest developing countries already suffering from the effects of a changing climate, and for the generations to come in all nations.

Over recent months, some people have claimed that more uncertain economic times have pushed climate change down the Government's agenda. The opposite is the truth. The increase in global oil prices over the last year has made our objectives of economic prosperity, energy security and combating climate change more, not less, interdependent.

We now know that the years of cheap energy and careless pollution are behind us. Our economic future - a future of secure energy supplies and without the threat of dangerous climate change - depends on our ability to move to a post-oileconomy.

So the Government has set out a six-part strategy for reducing our dependence on traditional fossil fuels. Built on hard policy - not easy rhetoric - this strategy will not only achieve our carbon targets for 2020 and 2050, set out in the Climate Change Bill. It will also secure thousands of new jobs in British industry and opportunities for British business.

First, we are engaged in a revolutionary drive to increase the efficiency with which we use energy. The hard truth is that we cannot subsidise our way out of higher long-term energy prices; we must invest our way out. That is why raising energy efficiency was the focus of the 1bn package of measures I announced earlier this month to help households reduce their energy bills.

With the legal obligation we have placed on the energycompanies, low-income households and pensioners over 70 are able to benefit from free loft and cavity wall insulation, and everyone else is able to take up energy company offers of at least 50% off the recommended cost. As part of this package, we propose to increase this obligation by 20%, which means that energy-saving measures will be more widely available. We estimate that 5 million more households will be insulated over the next two-and-a-half years, and another 5 million will get other energy-saving devices, from low-energy lightbulbs to wall displays which show real-time energy use. Together with simple behaviour changes, these measures can save a typical household over 300 a year - around a quarter of their energy bill. And as a country they will cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 5 million tons a year by 2010 - equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from the road.

At the same time, we will be consulting on a new community-based programme, funded by the energy companies and generators, to go house-to-house in around 100 low-income areas ensuring that people benefit from energy efficiency measures and that they claim their full social security benefits and tax credits.

Altogether, the Government's own spending programmes and those we impose on the energy companies add up to a 6.5bn investment in energy efficiency over the next three years - the widest programme of improvement to Britain's housing stock since the introduction of North Sea gas in the 1960s.

Second, we are pushing for a step change in the fuel efficiency of vehicles. The UK is urging Europe to adopt new tougher mandatory fuel-emission targets for new cars so that by 2020 new cars produce an average of 100g of C02 per kilometre - a cut of 40 per cent from today. This could reduce road fuel consumption in Britain by an average of 2 billion litres of road fuel a year, and save the typical British motorist around 500 pounds a year in running costs.

To achieve this we want to see the mass production of electric vehicles - conventional hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric vehicles. That is why the Government is now working with the major carmakers and energy companies to accelerate the introduction of such vehicles - and to see them manufactured in the UK.

Third, we have embarked on a massive expansion of renewable energy. In June, I set out the Government's strategy to meet our target that 15 per cent of our energy should come from renewables by 2020 - a tenfold increase. As a result of this, over the next decade the North Sea will become to offshore wind what the Gulf of Arabia is to oil - not only reducing our dependence on coal and gas but creating a major new industrial sector. At the same time we will see huge investment in combined heat and power energy from waste and biomass, and in new forms of microgeneration and locally supplied energy. We are pushing ahead with the development of marine and tidal technologies, including an examination of a tidal scheme on the Severn Estuary, which could supply 5 per cent of all the UK's electricity. In total, our renewables strategy represents a 100bn investment programme over the next twelve years, with the potential to create 160,000 jobs.

Fourth, we are ensuring a new generation of nuclear power stations can be built. I know this is controversial. But the alternative, generating the electricity from coal or gas, would raise - not reduce - Britain's emissions. So it is the right decision - with another 100,000 jobs potentially available as a result.

Fifth, because we recognise that, even with significant increases in renewable energy and new nuclear power stations, fossil fuels will continue to be an important part of UK and global energy supplies for the foreseeable future, we are supporting the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage. Our competition for the commercial-scale demonstration of this vital new technology not only make us the only EU country with such plans, but offers the potential of a major global market for British firms.

Lastly, we are supporting the European Commission's proposals for strengthening the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, which caps and reduces emissions from the energy-intensive sectors of our economy, and creates a price for carbon. We are determined that this scheme should be the foundation of a global carbon market.

Through our policies at home and through the EU, the Government is determined to show that ambitious plans to cut global emissions will not reduce our economic prosperity. They are crucial to securing it.

(c) 2008 Independent, The; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.