DECC’s “obsession” with nuclear will lead to dash for gas, warns campaigner

Despite being “rigged” for nuclear, DECC’s energy bill will encourage more investment in gas, delivering a blow to the UK’s climate targets. This was the message from environmentalists Greenpeace who […]

Despite being “rigged” for nuclear, DECC’s energy bill will encourage more investment in gas, delivering a blow to the UK’s climate targets. This was the message from environmentalists Greenpeace who fear the Government has got its draft bill all wrong.

Joss Garman, a senior energy campaigner at Greenpeace said: “This whole process has been rigged in favour of trying to get nuclear built and now we see they (Government) haven’t done enough and all these utilities are pulling out. So what we’re left with is a dangerous new dash for gas that’s going to put up bills and emissions.”

The draft Energy Bill, given to parliament yesterday, hopes to attract £110 billion of investment to replace old generation and encourage low carbon technologies.

However, the campaigner suggested the policy wasn’t strong enough to attract investment for renewables and in fact largely ignored the country’s binding targets for the environment.

Mr Garman said: “This Government, through its obsession with nuclear power, has just abandoned any ambition on renewable energy and now increasingly looks like its abandoning its ambitions for climate change too… The Government’s independent advisors said we need carbon-free electricity by 2030. But there is no goal on carbon free electricity in this bill and that’s really worrying because yet again it’s an invitation to build gas.”

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