My plan for a zero-carbon Britain - Nick Clegg

We need to set ourselves an ambitious goal: to become energy independent within the EU by 2050

Nick Clegg
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 21 2008 14:31 BST

Britain has a big choice to make. A generation of power stations based on old technologies are reaching the end of their useful life. Now is the moment for us to choose a green, renewable future, where Britain relies on its immense natural resources, instead of sticking with old technologies we know are destroying our planet.
It's going to be a huge challenge, requiring the kind of vision, application and political will that succeeded in putting man on the moon. But it's got to happen. That's why today I launched detailed plans for an Apollo Project for British energy independence.
Historically the UK has been dependent on energy imports, and unless we do more to focus on our own resources, this reliance will increase. It's bad economics, and bad politics. The cost of fossil fuels is rising and reliance on imported energy from places like Russia and the Middle East also distorts our foreign policy. Our position on the international stage is weakened by our need for fuel.
The truth is Britain has no credible energy policy, just a potential economic, environmental and national security disaster waiting to happen. We need change. We need to set ourselves an ambitious goal: to become energy independent within the EU by 2050 as part of a push for a zero carbon Britain.
To make it possible we need to be at the vanguard of green technology. This is a huge economic opportunity for Britain to lead the world in renewable technologies, creating jobs and revitalising industrial capacity. Even the government's measly existing plans for renewables would create about 160,000 jobs, so just imagine how many jobs we could find if we took the big leap to a truly green economy.
We've got to slash the amount of energy we use, with a sustained drive to increase energy efficiency and end fuel poverty so everyone can keep warm and keep the lights on without costing the planet. We'd push this forward through the energy companies, asking them to fund a major programme to insulate every British home over 10 years and install "smart meters" that cut help families use less.
Reducing energy use is important, but we also need to make sure the energy we do use is renewable. A massive expansion of renewable projects in the North Sea and elsewhere would help develop mature markets for a range of renewable technologies and provide investors with more long term stability. The introduction of "feed in tariffs" – where people who generate renewable energy can sell it into the national grid at a guaranteed price – would help too.
This is a tremendous opportunity for a different future: a stable, prosperous and green future. We need to seize it.