Brown's drive to use UK's wave and wind power

Brown's drive to use UK's wave and wind power

Patrick Wintour, political editor
The Guardian
Saturday November 17 2007

Gordon Brown will next week reveal he has rejected a Whitehall attempt to abandon the government commitment to supply a fifth of British energy needs from renewables by 2020. The commitment is intended as a landmark move to show Britain can remain a world green leader.

The prime minister is also likely to insist at an international conference in Bali in December that international progress towards a new climate change accord can be maintained.

The conference is trying to agree an international framework to cut emissions after 2012 when the current Kyoto agreement expires. Neither the US or Australia are signatory to the Kyoto accord.

The business and enterprise secretary, John Hutton, has been lobbying inside government to warn there were severe practical difficulties meeting the 20% energy from renewables target set in successive government white papers.

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They also take it as an indication that the political atmosphere is changing in the US and that after the US elections next year, if not before, the White House will shift to a more progressive approach, so making it easier to strike long term agreements with India and China, the two industrialising super powers.

One source said: "The aim is to keep the US in the game at Bali and then to work on Hillary Clinton and the US Congress to get a good environmental policy thereafter. We do not need a final agreement for another two years".