Responding to comments today by Prime Minister David Cameron, and to continuing events in Japan, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:
“The focus now for everybody should be on saving lives in Japan, and our thoughts in particular are with the heroic engineers working to reduce the impact of this nuclear accident.
"But it’s already clear that a new debate is taking shape here in Europe about the direction of our energy policy.
"We’re lurching from one energy crisis to the next. First the BP oil spill in the USA, then oil price spikes in response to unrest in the Middle East, and now this nuclear emergency. But the long-term solution is the same as it has always been – a sustainable home-grown renewable energy system.
"For years our politicians have promised us that we are on the verge of a clean technology revolution where we switch to a safer, cleaner energy system. It hasn’t happened yet, but if not now, when?
"We are blessed on this island with vast natural clean energy resources. You have to ask what it will take before Ministers finally seize the potential for renewable energy and the huge bounty of jobs and investment that comes with it. Will this century see billions more go in investment on fossil fuels and nuclear, or is this the moment that clean-tech makes a real break through?”
