World Development Movement comment on the Energy White Paper

Ed Miliband is today unveiling the Energy White Paper and UK carbon budgets. The World Development Movement is concerned that the UK’s climate change strategy will be heavily reliant on carbon trading and unproven techno-fixes to reduce carbon emissions.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"What we hope is that Ed Miliband will commit to substantial investment in the renewable energy sector. This will help to create new jobs, reduce our carbon emissions and develop technologies which can be used to tackle climate change across the world. What we fear is that Ed Miliband will have fallen prey to the heavy lobbying from the energy companies who prefer the status quo.

"We are very concerned at reports that the carbon budgets will be very heavily reliant on carbon trading, which is a dodgy, creative accounting technique that reduces our emissions in name only. Carbon trading places the burden on poor countries to reduce their carbon emissions so that we can continue to pollute. This is double counting on an audacious scale and is an incredible injustice.

"Ed Miliband is holding onto the hope that carbon capture technology fitted onto new coal power stations will decarbonise the electricity sector at some point in the future. But even if the technology were proven, under the current plans for Kingsnorth, it would only cut its emissions by about 25 per cent. We have no evidence as to whether the technology will work on a commercial scale.

"Market solutions and techno fixes, such as carbon trading and carbon capture technology are fraught with risk so the government should not be resting its hopes on these to solve the climate crisis. We support large increases in renewable energy but urge the government to commit to all electricity generation being zero carbon by 2030 at the latest, as recommended by the government’s own committee on climate change."

ENDS

For more information, please all Kate Blagojevic on 020 7820 4900 / 07711 875 345

Notes to editors

The World Development Movement (WDM) tackles the underlying causes of poverty. We lobby decision makers to change the policies that keep people poor. We research and promote positive alternatives. We work alongside people in the developing world who are standing up to injustice. www.wdm.org.uk