It’s Not About the Money, Money, Money…

The UN’s latest and most comprehensive climate panel report states that there is overwhelming evidence to prove that climate change is definitely happening; it’s real and it’s posing a significant threat to, amongst other things, food security and humankind itself.

It’s also clear that human-induced warming is likely to lead to large-scale and potentially irreversible changes in physical systems including oceans and regions covered by snow or ice, with potentially devastating results.

Responding to the UN report, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey, has commented, “…the UK Government…must abandon its short-sighted championing of fracking and oil, and get fully behind energy efficiency and our home-grown renewable power potential instead.

“The only road that leads to both a reduction in carbon emissions and economic growth is one built on a clean industrial revolution.  This means investing and innovating now in large scale renewable deployment…most of the energy and technology... already exist, but need rapid scaling up today not tomorrow. For in the long term, prevention will be a lot cheaper than the cure.”

Let’s not forget that it was the government’s climate change targets that kick-started the renewables revolution in the UK.  Thousands of homes, businesses and organisations have benefited, and continue to benefit, from generous feed in tariffs and subsidies but let’s not also lose sight of why renewables are so important in the first place.

In 2010, the total emissions of CO₂ in the UK were estimated to be 495.8 million tonnes, around 3.8% higher than in 2009. Around 108 million tonnes of this was produced by the industrial, commercial and public sectors, with a further 204 million tonnes from energy supply.

It’s clear that we need to do more if we are to substantially cut carbon emissions but not only does the Government need to keep incentives there but consumers of energy also need to take responsibility and play their part in order to secure a greener future.  Although the payback from renewables remains in the double figures, as Jessie J suggests “it’s not about the money, money, money; it’s about the price tag”.  This report shows just what the price tag is likely to be unless we act now.