3 days ago
Everyone else is scaling back green targets – why can't we?
The Netherlands won't be building as many wind turbines in the North Sea as it had first planned. New Zealand has started issuing licences for developing new offshore gas fields again. Even Canada, under one of the champions of the green energy transition Mark Carney, has upped the production of fossil fuels.
Right across the developed world, with the one significant exception of China, governments are scaling back their green targets, recognising that they are too expensive, too poorly planned and won't deliver the power needed at the right price to keep a modern economy functioning.
But hold on. If the rest of the world is ripping up the plan, why can't Britain as well? Because we need cheaper, reliable energy more than any of our major industrial rivals.
It has proved yet another week of setbacks for cheerleaders of the green energy transition. The Dutch government had set a target of 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy – more than enough to supply the entire country's energy needs, currently around 24GW – by 2040, but has now lowered it. The reason? It is costing more than it expected – surprise, surprise – as well as generating more power than the country actually needs.
Back in May, New Zealand, under a new Right-of-centre government, reversed the ban on new offshore oil and gas fields and is now actively encouraging fresh investment in fossil fuels.
We might have expected Mark Carney to take office as the prime minister of Canada to accelerate the shift to renewable energy given his record at the Bank of England. But no. Instead, he is allowing the country's huge oil and gas industry to start expanding again.
